Shadows of the Black Dragon
by Sharingan-kun
Summary: With his memories lost, Naruto must slowly relearn everything about himself and the world around him, including a piece of his past that threatens to destroy everything.
1. Prologue: Amnesia

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Naruto or Fairy Tail.

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_"I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better."  
_~ Plutarch

**Prologue: Amnesia**

When Naruto awoke, it was to darkness.

Not because it was dark, but because he couldn't see. Was he blind? No. It wasn't exactly blindness. Not this time anyways, but for whatever reason, his eyelids refused to obey him, staying shut despite his strained efforts otherwise. Still, he was beginning to hear again. His ears were constantly catching the slightly muffled rustle of leaves all around him.

His sense of smell seemed to be slowly returning as well, bringing with it the scent of some kind of flower. Roses, perhaps? Whatever it was, it was suffocating. He wanted to cough, but he couldn't, even as a burning pain seared through his throat and lungs.

_'What... happened to me?_' Naruto thought to himself.

The bright side to all of this, if you could even call it that, was that the pain meant that he could feel. And feeling meant that he was still alive; alive enough to also sense something else, at least. There was definitely some other presence there. A slightly soothing sensation against his head, as if fingers were gently wafting through his hair as he lay there.

He tried to reach up and grab hold of whatever - whoever - it was, but his arms refused to budge. Clearly, his body was in rougher shape than he thought. And unfortunately, his recent memory didn't seem to be holding up much better as he tried to piece together the events that led him to his current state.

_'Who's there? Who are you?'_ he tried to ask. He couldn't quite manage that much though. His throat felt as dry as sandpaper and his lips wouldn't quite move the way he wanted them to. So all he could hear himself say was a few inarticulate 'Huu' sounds. He worked to clear his throat and try again, but this time, was interrupted by a soft and familiar voice.

"Finally awake, huh, Naruto?" it said. It was a feminine voice and her tone was casual, as if she were just a close friend, berating him for oversleeping. Yet he couldn't for the life of him, pin a name or a face to her voice. "How are you feeling?"

_Ugh... like shit,_ Naruto wanted to say. But of course, he couldn't and 'whoever-this-girl-was' let out a short, almost melancholic chuckle.

"Ah, don't answer that. I just can't help but tease you, even now." The girl let out a drawn-out sigh. "Sorry."

Naruto attempted once again to move his arms and legs. He could feel them, which was a relief, but it quickly dawned on him that they were probably not in a state that was fit for moving. Even the smallest twitches of his muscles sent shockwaves of intense pain to wash over his entire being. He struggled against himself and moved slightly anyways, expecting this unknown girl to help him in some manner, but she did nothing of the sort, and continued to speak cryptically to him instead.

"Say, the magic hasn't taken effect yet, right?" she asked him out of the blue. "You can still remember it, right? When we talked about what we wanted to do with our lives and such..."

_'What the hell is she talking about?' _ Naruto thought. He tried to speak again. He wasn't even sure of what he was trying to say. Anything really. But this time all that escaped his lips was silence.

"Remember how boring my dream was? All I ever wanted was to live a happy and carefree life in Fairy Tail. It was so simple. But... I suppose it suited a naive girl like me."

Wait a minute. Did he even know anybody with a dream like that? Naruto's mind was a jumbled mess at this point and this cryptic girl wasn't helping matters.

"But you know, your dream... "

"Your dream was weird," laughed the girl. "I don't think I'll ever forget how you told me you were from some far-away make-believe land. That you wanted to be a... what was it again? A Ho-something? Err...Ho-ka... Hokage? Mmmh, yea, that was it. You said you wanted to be a Hokage. It sounded so ridiculous. Then you said you were a ninja, remember? And I laughed in your face."

A tinge of anger lit up within Naruto at her words, though he wasn't even sure why. He didn't remember telling anyone anything of the sort. '_Why am I here? Better yet, can't you just help me up, whoever-you-are?'_ He wanted so badly to say these things to her as he continued to painfully test each part of his body.

The girl laughed a bit then paused, letting the silence seep in. It was like she was completely unaware of Naruto's own struggles. And when she finally continued, her tone suddenly became wholly serious. "But, you know? Over the years, I got to know you better. I started to understand that despite your brashness, you were always devoted to your friends, to me. You might have been a little thickheaded and we often fought over trivial things, but you never once tried to lie to me, or deceive me, or sell me out, even though sometimes I might have done those things to you. And it suddenly dawned on me. That maybe you weren't making up those stories about being from another world. That maybe the silly story you were defending so adamantly might be the truth. One that I was simply too stubborn to believe in. It was then, I figured that your dream wasn't so stupid after all. That you actually wanted to become somebody strong enough to change your world for the better. That was your real dream."

"And," she added, with just the barest hint of reluctance in her tone. "I think thats when I started having these feelings for you, too."

Naruto's eyes suddenly shot open, revealing the outline of a girl staring affectionately down at him. And though he squinted hard, the girl's features were too blurry and distorted to fully make out. The fact that he couldn't make out colors made the matter worse as everything seemed to be a dizzying mix of red, yellow, and blue. And her face... she seemed attractive but... It was then that he realized that his head was resting on her lap, a thought that made his heart skip a beat, despite his critical condition. But the problem was... he couldn't recognize her, even though her words suggested that they had been close. No, it wasn't that he didn't recognize her. It was more like he had somehow... forgotten who she was? Who the heck _was_ she, anyways? Whoever she was, her expression had suddenly turned even more tortured. He could vaguely make out the beginnings of tears forming up in the corners of her eyes.

"So, it's already started, huh? Your memories are beginning to fade?"

What was she talking about? His memories were fading? Nonsense. No they weren't, were they? Nothing she said was making any sense. Naruto wanted nothing more than to make her go away. No, wait. No he didn't. He... wanted her to stay? No. that didn't make sense either. Nothing made _any_ sense. And he couldn't even muster up his voice to ask her any of the questions burning at the tip of his tongue. It was beyond frustrating.

"Do you remember who I am?" she asked, a blurry hand pointing towards her own face. It was as if she had somehow caught the question burgeoning through his eyes.

With great pain and effort, Naruto shook his head, hoping that she would at least give him her name. He didn't get it. Instead, he received a few teardrops as they fell from her face to his.

"Ugggh. I keep trying to remind myself that it's better this way. You forgetting everything, that is. You might even be able to forgive me now," she said, before pausing to draw in a sniffle. "At least... at least this way, I can't hurt you anymore."

An instinct deep inside of him told him that something was definitely wrong. Naruto shifted his gaze to the left, desperate to recognize _anything _around him. Instead, he saw only an unfamiliar desecrated battlefield of what was once probably a garden of sorts. There were large smoking craters here and there, leaves, weapons, and flower petals littered chaotically about. In the distance was a strange old mansion, guarded by twin fountains, sculpted in the visage of an elaborately dressed girl, one broken the other still pristine. Varying amounts of dried blood seemed to be spattered everywhere, and pieces of torn cloth were snagged upon the jagged destruction.

But nothing. Not _one_ thing was recognizable and he started to panic, started to shake as it was really all he could do in his current state.

"Shh, relax Naruto," the girl comforted, continuing to stroke his hair as she did. "It's okay now. Let the magic take it's course."

_'No!' _Naruto wanted to refuse, his mind tried so desperately to will his body to do something. Anything.

"But before you go, I want you to know that I appreciate everything you've done for me..."

Naruto could literally feel something rushing through him now, like a chilly wave that swept his away his thoughts. His feelings.

"...that I'll never forget you. That I cherished all the time we spent together in Fairy Tail..."

The name of the girl. It came. No... it was barely there on the cusp of his fading memory. He just... he couldn't quite reach it.

"I know you would never approve of the things I'll be doing from here on out, but I just can't let things go the way they are any longer. I have to take matters into my own hands now."

_'No, I need to remember.'_ It was there. He could feel it on his tongue.

"...so please, don't try to stop me any longer. Just forget everything, Naruto."

Then, in that instant, he had it. Her name. And with it, he had also found his voice. He called upon it urgently. _Desperately._ And cried out to her.

But before he could, in a single movement, she bent down, her soft lips pressed up against his before he could say a thing. The sudden memory of her identity vanished instantly, along with all the feelings of confusion and pain he once had.

"But don't worry," she whispered as their lips parted. "I'll make sure you and the rest of Fairy Tail are safe when I destroy all the corruption in this world."

And just like that, everything turned to nothing.

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**A/N:** The story probably doesn't make sense just yet. The girl in this chapter is one of the Fairy Tail girls. I'm just not going to let you know which one.


	2. The Stranger

**A/N: **Unfortunately, I can't reveal who the mysterious girl in the prologue is quite yet. I want to but it's supposed to remain a mystery for a while.

Anyways, I left the pairing open because it's going to be open ended at first. He's lost his memories so I'm going to use that to give him an excuse to get to know a bunch of different girls before he meets the one in the prologue.

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**Chapter One - The Stranger**

The soft wind caressing his face was what brought him out of sleep. He briefly wondered if he had left the window open last night. He couldn't remember exactly how long he had been out. It mustn't have been long because he still felt fatigued and his body was inexplicably stiff and sore all over. Not helping matters was how his bed felt hard and uncomfortable. He might as well had been sleeping on a rock.

After a moment, he blinked open his eyes, squinting when the bright sunlight coming in through his window threatened to momentarily blind him. At the same time, he stirred and inhaled deeply through his nose, taking in the crisp morning air filled with the scent of flowers. Flowers and something else. Something rich and aromatic. It made him hungry.

_'Wait a minute, sunlight? Flowers? Windows? Did my room even _have_ windows?' _ He was too groggy to remember... or care. But he soon figured that he probably wasn't at home. In fact, now that his mind and vision was finally beginning to clear up a little, he realized that he wasn't even indoors. And also that something didn't feel right.

A cursory glance at his surroundings confirmed his suspicions. It looked like he was in some ancient courtyard of some sort. Ancient because everything looked decrepit and covered in moss and vine. There seemed to be some kind of large mansion or villa in the distance and he quickly realized that he actually _had_ been sleeping on a rock - a giant slab of it that lay in the middle of a rose garden.

Still, he managed to sit up. But as soon as he did, his body froze. There was somebody else there with him, only a few paces away. A strange looking young man staring wide-eyed right back at him. He was tall, lean and athletic, dressed in an orange and black hooded cloak. His short blonde hair was unkempt, unruly even, but otherwise his features were sharp. He looked dangerous. Yet strangely enough, startled as well.

"You're awake," he said, relief clearly spreading across his face. "Thank Kami. I was beginning to think..." He shook his head as if to clear it. "Never mind that, how are you feeling? Can you move?"

_'Can I move?'_ The question seemed more odd than alarming, but he looked down to check his limbs anyways, testing them. They all worked. Some parts of him were a little stiffer than others but that seemed normal enough for having slept on a rock all night. _'Wait a minute, why was I sleeping out here? And who is this guy? I don't think I know him...'_ He opened his mouth to ask the first question bubbling on his mind but was interrupted.

"Good," said the young the man. His body seemed to go limp with relief. "Great. It doesn't look like there's any permanent damage... well, to your body at least." Then he sighed. Loudly. "But now for the hard part. Err... Let's see... How should I put this... First of all, do you... can you recognize me?"

His face became a mask of confusion and he squinted his eyes, as if such a thing would allow him to suddenly recognize this blonde stranger asking him all these weird questions. It was futile, though, and in the end, he shook his head. _Negative._

"Shit," cursed the blonde. "Damn it. So it _is_ worse than I thought. That stupid bitch. Gah. Do you even know who _you_ are?"

Now _that_ seemed like a stupid question. Of course he knew who he was. "I'm Naruto," he said, easily. But something felt immediately off as soon as it rolled off his tongue. It felt strange. Familiar but empty. Maybe he was saying it wrong. "I'm Naru...to. Na..._ru..._to_?_ _Na... _ruto..." It still felt off. Maybe it _was_ wrong. _Was _it wrong? It couldn't be wrong. But the blonde man across from him looked ecstatic.

"Yes! YES! So you _do_ know who you are!" He cheered. Then his brow quirked up. "But you don't know who _I _am? Hmm... that's pretty messed up."

Naruto opened his mouth to say something but couldn't really think of anything to say. He felt oddly guilty for not knowing this person who seemed so sure that they were acquaintances.

"Ah, whatever, don't worry about it," said the stranger. "Look, I can't stick around much longer so don't try speak, just listen. I'll explain as much as I can. But before that..." He reached back and grabbed something, tossing it over to Naruto.

Naruto caught it, though somewhat clumsily and took a look. It was a waterskin.

"Water," said the stranger. "You're probably thirsty, right?"

It was only then that Naruto realized just how thirsty he really was. His lips were cracked and the entire inside of his mouth and throat felt like dry paper. So hastily, Naruto tore the cap off the waterskin and pressed it against his lips, feeling near instantaneous relief as the cold liquid filled his mouth and gushed down his throat.

"Slowly now," warned the man. "Take it easy or you'll-"

The warning came a little too late. Some of the liquid made it into Naruto's lungs when he hungrily chugged down the water. He coughed, hard, his entire chest disagreeing with him and making their arguments known through intense pain. '_Why the hell did it hurt so much?'_

"Told you," chided the stranger, shaking his head. "Be careful, alright? Your body hasn't fully recovered yet. You'll need a bit more rest before you can move around normally again. Anyways, here, I brought this too. You should get some food into your system. It'll help you recover faster..." The stranger produced a large bowl of noodles and placed it on the rock beside where Naruto sat. It was the source of the aromatic smell that made him hungry when he had first awoken. Ramen. "Now, take it easy this time," warned the man again, giving Naruto a pointed look before reluctantly handing over a pair of chopsticks.

Naruto nodded, compliant. Slowly and methodically digging in. The soup was cold but it tasted absolutely delicious. Quite possibly the most delicious thing he had ever tasted in his life, though a part of it might have been because he was deathly hungry.

The stranger remained quiet a while, letting Naruto take in his food. It wasn't until a few minutes later that the blonde stranger began to speak again.

"Now listen," he began. "I'm not sure of the best way to get this out to you, so I'm just going to go ahead and say it. You've got amnesia."

_'Amnesia?'_ Naruto nearly choked on his ramen when he heard it.

"It was inflicted on you through magic. Memory-make or something. Some kind of lost magic, I think. Whatever it is, I don't think it's permanent, but... that might be hopeful thinking on my part. Still, you'll want to at least _try_ to recover your memories. I'd start by asking someone from the Magic Council or maybe some of the masters of the bigger mage guilds. They'll probably know a thing or two; maybe even find something or someone who can help. They'll point you in the right direction. At least I hope so." Somehow, the stranger didn't sound too sure of himself.

But upon hearing this, Naruto could not contain his thoughts any longer. And now that most of his voice was back, he let it out. "Amnesia? You're crazy. I can't have amnesia. I-"

"Do you remember what happened yesterday?" shot off the stranger, crassly. "Or how about last week? Last year? Can you remember when you joined the guild? Or about how you got to Earth Land in the first place? And what about the elemental nations? Remember that? How about your childhood? Your Ninja Academy years? No? Nothing?"

"I... I-" Naruto tried hard to think, racking his brain for his memories. He didn't want to believe it. He tried so hard to come up with something to prove this stranger wrong. But the stranger was right. When he tried to recollect the events of the previous night, his mind just drew a blank. Same as when he kept going back. Further and further back. His memories seemed like a blank slate. It somehow felt like he shouldn't even exist. Even his name felt wrong...

"Like I said... amnesia. As far as I know, all you remember are basic things. How to talk, how to eat, maybe how to fight? Ugh, I'm not too sure about that last one. And your magic... well, you're going to have to find those out on your own."

Naruto's head began to ache, hard.

"Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to be such an ass, but you've got to realize the situation you're in. Your number one priority should be getting your memories back. If you can't, you'll have no hope of stopping her before it's too late."

Naruto looked up slowly, confusion evident on his face. "Stopping who?"

The blonde man looked him in the eye. "Ah, right, of course you wouldn't remember. She's the one you fought with last night. The one who gave you your amnesia in the first place. Her name is _*****"_

The moment the last word hit Naruto's ear, his head exploded. At least, that's what it felt like. He winced, and shot up to his feet, toppling what was left of the ramen that had been resting on his lap. He clawed at his head, trying to make the pain go away. It didn't. Not until he felt himself struggle for at least an eternity. A five-second long eternity.

"Whoa, you okay?" asked the blonde man as he rushed over to support Naruto. "What happened?"

"I... I don't know. As soon as you said it... her name, I think... my head started to hurt."

"Eh? You sure? Hmm... *****"

Again, the pain screamed through Naruto's head, like a thousand banshees trying to tear his mind apart. "S-stop... Stop saying it!"

"Damn, sorry," said the blonde man. "Must be some kind of residual magic. I'm pretty sure it'll fade eventually but..."

Naruto cringed. "...hopeful thinking?"

"Like I said before, I'm sure someone out there can help you."

"How do you even know all of this anyways? Who are you?"

The blonde man opened his mouth, then stopped himself. It was an awkward moment before he continued. "You'll find out soon enough," he said. "I'm not sure how you'll react so... let me just fill you in on as many other things as I can before that."

Naruto blinked stupidly. _'What the hell kind of explanation was that?'_

The man ignored Naruto's expression of outrage and continued. "Your name is Naruto. Naruto Uzumaki," he said. "The girl you're after, let's call her...uh..." he paused, struggling with himself.

"Pain?" Naruto offered, helpfully.

"Huh?"

"Let's just call her Pain since it hurts my head just thinking about her."

The blonde man looked baffled, but nodded. "Good one. So Pain, then. Right. Anyways, so this Pain girl is the one you're trying to stop. She-"

"Why am I trying to stop her, again?" interrupted Naruto.

"Okay, look, I really don't have much time left so just let me do the talking, okay?" said the blonde stranger, apologetically. "No interruptions from now on."

Naruto conceded and nodded.

"Great. So you're trying to stop Pain because she's gone rogue. Well, not exactly, but she's definitely taken to darker things now. It has something to do with her past. I'm not gonna go into much detail because frankly, it's not important, and you'll probably find out eventually anyways. Just know that you have to stop her before she gets out of hand."

"Right..."

"Pain is a mage of Fairy Tail, ring any bells?"

Naruto shook his head.

"Figured as much. It's a mage guild, based in Magnolia Town."

That name didn't sound familiar either but Naruto just noted them in his head and nodded.

"Don't go there. In fact, don't even go _near_ there. Not until you're ready. She's still a member of the guild and if she sees you again, she'll probably just repeat the whole memory wipe thing and you'd be back where you started, only you wouldn't have your trump card this time."

"Trump card?"

"Me," said the blonde, simply. Naruto didn't question it further, though it didn't make much sense. "Luckily, you have a bit of time. She can't make her move until she's completed that S-rank 100-year mission. From what I know, she's searching for some kind of artifact and the 100-year mission has some clues to it's whereabouts. I don't know how long it'll take her to complete the mission but... my guess... probably less than a year. She's strong. Insanely strong."

"And you want _me_ to stop her?" demanded Naruto.

"You're insanely strong too," admitted the stranger. "At least you were. But your problem is that you're stupid. When the two of you fought, your attachment to her got in the way. You held back, understand? Maybe you did subconsciously, I can't really know for sure, but it doesn't even matter because the result was still the same. You got your ass beat. Thankfully, you don't have that weakness anymore now that you've forgotten who she is. But... you'll still need to recover your full strength before you go after her."

"Riiight..."

"_So..._ you'll need to train once your body recovers. Like I said, I don't know how much you remember about your own fighting skills and magic, but you'll need to get them back to even stand a chance against her. Your best bet is to try to get your memories restored first. If that's not possible, then you'll have to train somehow. Heck, join another mage guild. I sure that would help. Your body will remember how to fight if you give it a chance, even if your mind doesn't. Just remember, whatever you do, avoid anyone from Fairy Tail. If they find out you're still alive... well, _she'll_ find out too and it's..."

"...back to square one," finished Naruto, understanding. His head began to hurt again. "Great, so I just need to get my memories back, train till I'm all really strong again, then find and stop this monster-girl, Pain, from doing whatever it is she's planning to do. Oh, and I'm supposed to do _all_ of this in less than a year. Anything else?"

The stranger seemed to ponder a bit, then shook his head. "I think that about covers it. Any questions?"

"You're insane."

"Hey, that's not a question," frowned the stranger. "But I know how you feel. Trust me. Shit, I'm running out of time, I can feel it. But here, let me get you started before I go."

Naruto was too tired to argue at this point and simply nodded, wondering why this guy was in such a hurry. Where the hell did he have to go? Whatever, it didn't matter. Naruto had his own worries now, especially about getting his memories back. That was definitely a priority. Being a blank slate like he was... it gave him a perpetual headache just thinking about it.

"There's a town near here," said the stranger, pointing in the direction opposite the mansion in the distance. "Gilia Town. It's a pretty big town with it's own growing mage guild. The guild is named Sabertooth, I think. I'd go check them out first."

Naruto rubbed his forehead. "Right. Gilia Town. Sabertooth. Got it."

"Oh, and another thing," said the stranger as his hands went up in a flurry of strange movements. Moments later, something _popped_ in a cloud of smoke and scroll materialized out of nowhere. Naruto was shocked. Was _this_ magic? The stranger grabbed the scroll, unfurled it, wrote something in it, then motioned for Naruto to come closer to him. "Here, take this scroll and hold out your arm," he said.

Naruto reluctantly obeyed. "What are you trying to do?" The stranger ignored Naruto's question and again, performed a series strange hand movements. This time, the scroll he gave to Naruto suddenly disappeared in a puff of smoke and strange markings burned onto Naruto's skin at the forearm. Naruto flinched back. "What the hell was that?"

"Her name," said the stranger. "_Pain's _real name, I mean. When you're ready to see it, I left it on that scroll. All you need to do is summon it."

Naruto's face contorted into a frown. "And just how am I supposed to do that?"

"You'll find out," he said. "Shit, now I _really_ have to go. Remember, head to Gilia Town. Seek out the master of Sabertooth. I think his name was Jienma or something. It'll at least get you started. Good luck. You'll need it." Then he turned around and began to walk away.

"Wait," Naruto called out, "You're just gonna leave? Weren't you going to tell me who you are?"

The blonde man turned around and simply grinned. "Oh yeah," he said. "Almost forgot. I'm you, Boss."

And with that, he disappered in a puff of smoke, flooding Naruto's head with enough memories to make him black out, once again.

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**A/N: **So Naruto will get some of his memories back. Not the type of memories you're probably thinking of, but it'll help get this story moving in the right direction. Sabertooth will play a pretty big part. I like that guild, for some reason, and it's is why I wrote this story in the first place.

As for when this story takes place, you'll find out in the upcoming chapter along with hints as to why I named the story the way I did. (Naruto is _not_ Acnologia's dragon slayer. That's been done to death in this crossover already.)


	3. Fragment of a Broken Past

**A/N: **Added around 1.5k words to this chapter to make the ending a little less cliff-hangery. All the new stuff is in section 4. I also updated the grammar and stuff in this chapter to make it flow better. Yay me. Btw, I need a beta. Anyone interested?

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**Chapter Two - Fragment of a Broken Past**

**- 1 -  
**

"Hey, Naruto. Naruto? Naruto!"

He was dreaming now. And in it, he was a child. Maybe ten or eleven? He couldn't know for sure. There was a calendar there, hanging off the wall. July X777 it read. But he didn't know what day it was. There were other things too. He remembered a fireplace, warm and cozy, keeping his attention as it burned in the background. He remembered his small wooden desk, stacked with books and loose piles of papers that fluttered slightly from a breeze coming in from the room's open window. He remembered an old and senile teacher wearing a pointy hat. His grey beard was unfurled, swaying back and forth as he lectured drearily on and on about something... The principle causalities of Ethernano? Whatever that meant.

Most importantly, he remembered her. Her brightness. Her blonde hair, lifting lightly in the wind. Her dancing brown eyes always casting their wonder and excitement to the world around her. And her name:

Lucy Heartfilia.

In the dream, they were both in a classroom of sorts, attending a private magic lesson. Lucy sat in a separate desk beside him whispering something, conspiratorially, in his direction. Naruto didn't really pay it much heed. Not because he didn't want to, but because their magic instructor, Grandpa Belo (who wasn't anybody's real grandfather), had this particularly boring droll of a voice as he lectured and Naruto found it hard to even stay conscious, let alone listen to Lucy, who was probably just complaining about something.

"Naruto, are you even listening?" she asked quietly under her breath. Yep. Complaining. And loud, to boot. Luckily for her, Grandpa Belo was mostly deaf in his old age, and didn't seem to really pick up on her.

Mostly to appease her, Naruto reached for his notes and scratched his head. "Uh, I think he was talking about the ether-something and how it's related to the magical flow of-OW!" Lucy's eraser bounced off his head and landed on his desk. "Hey! What was that for?" he yelled, tossing over a heated look.

Unfortunately, he had forgotten to control the volume of his voice and Grandpa Belo caught him with a glare. "Young Master Naruto!" he scolded. "If you do not properly attend to your magic lessons, I am afraid I will be forced to inform the Lady Heartfilia of your misbehavior."

Naruto gulped. The 'Lady Heartfilia' he was referring to was Lucy's mom, Layla, who was as sweet as can be, until she got angry. As angelic as she was, even the heavens couldn't stop her from bringing out her sadistic side when she was genuinely displeased. He shivered at the thought. But then again, certain circumstances had made things a little different with her lately...

Still, Naruto didn't want to take the chance. So he shook his head and quickly apologized, promising not to disturb the lecture further.

Grandpa Belo returned a stern but satisfied look before he turned his attention back to the magical lacryma board at the front of the room, continuing to lecture into it as it filled magically with notes and diagrams and runes.

Lucy giggled softly. "_Someone_ is always getting into trouble," she said matter-of-factly.

Naruto frowned. "And it's always _someone else's_ fault," he quipped back, this time soft enough to fly below Grandpa Belo's hearing range.

"Is not!" whispered Lucy.

"Is too!" Naruto whispered back.

Their childlike argumentative banter continued for a bit, quietly of course, until finally, Naruto was forced to dodge a frustrated Lucy's pencil as it flew at his face.

"It's because you never listen!" she whispered frantically.

It was all Naruto could do to _not_ raise his voice. "I _was_ listening. I told you. He was talking about the ether-something-"

"Not _that!_" she said, cheeks flushed with anger. "You never listen to _me!_ And... and it's important this time."

Naruto scoffed. _Yeah right. _"Last time you got mad, it was because of your hair, right?. What is this time, Princess? Break a nail or something? Want me to kiss it all better?" Naruto's tone was all bitter and mocking.

But Lucy didn't take the bait this time, as she usually did. Instead, her face grew pained. It put him on edge a little. "It's Mom," she said. "She's still sick. And it's getting really bad now."

"Huh?" Naruto's eyes widened. "Still? But when I saw her last time she..." He had to think about it. The last time he saw Lucy's mom was just under a week ago and she looked like she had been recovering. She was smiling, at least, as she always had. And though she was a little paler than usual, she looked better than she had when she had first contracted the sickness that had bedridden her for weeks. Jude Heartfilia had even called in the best doctors and healers from all over Fiore. Naruto had thought that Layla getting better was a sure thing; that it was just a matter of time. But if Lucy said she was getting worse... "Are you sure?"

Lucy was barely holding back her tears. "Come see for yourself," she said.

Naruto nodded, understanding. He waited until Grandpa Belo's focus was away from them, then he created two shadow clones, one of which took on Lucy's form. He then had them sit in the desks while Naruto and Lucy snuck out of the makeshift classroom. They often snuck out like this to play. It was a shame that this time, there was a less adventurous air about.

"Follow me," said Lucy when they were out in the hallways.

Naruto trailed Lucy through the huge manor until they reached the ornate double doors that led into Jude and Layla's bedroom. The doors were open a crack and they heard an unfamiliar voice coming from inside. So they did what most curious children would do in their situation, they pressed their ears to the door and listened in.

"There appear to be no new symptoms," they overheard. "But unfortunately, the symptoms you already have are getting worse. Are you still having trouble breathing?"

There was a long pause, where they couldn't hear anything. Then some murmurs. As if she was speaking too quietly for them to hear.

"Fortunately, those _'healers'_ have not caused any damage. Yet. "There was an obvious unpleasantness when he said the word 'healer'. Healers referred to mages who could use healing magic. A doctor, on the other hand, used more traditional methods and equipment, supplemented with herbs and medicines. Doctors tended to distrust healers. A little of it because they didn't really believe in healing magic. A lot of it because 'healing mages' have a horrible reputation. Sometimes they were just ordinary mages who couldn't heal at all and would attempt to use whatever magic they had to fake a cure. Their negligence would often cost their patient's dearly, exacerbating ailments rather than helping to cure them.

"So have you taken the Windblossom Tea I prescribed?"

Murmurs.

"What of the Curaroot pills?"

More Murmurs. Another pause.

"I see. Then I am afraid your sickness may be as bad as you believe. Never in my many years as a doctor have I seen anything like the illness that attacks you now. The samples of your body's fluids have shown nothing. There are no malicious viruses. No infectious diseases. Not even a parasite. It is like your body is simply... weakening of it's own accord. No, not weakening per say... it is... slowing down. Yes, I believe that describes it perfectly. Everything about you. Your organs, cell reproduction, blood flow, nervous system, all of it... It's just all slowing down. Why, if I didn't know any better, I would say it is the work of magic."

"M-Magic?" came the startled, barely audible, reply.

"Ah, but I am not so desperate yet. I have a few other medications that I will prescribe to you later. They should help. For now, continue to lie in bed and rest-"

"I will _not_ be caged here _any longer, _Doctor," demanded Layla, this time loud enough for Naruto and Lucy to clearly hear. "I feel like a _prisoner_ in my own room!"

"But Madam, it would not be wise to be out and and about at this stage of your illness. There are all manner of things that could-"

"I have heard the same recommendations time and time again, yet none of them have helped. _Not_ _even a little_. So unless you can absolutely guarantee me that _even more_ rest and medication will miraculously allow me to recover, I should like to spend time with my family before I... before..."

There was a long silence.

"I-I'm sorry, Lady Heartfilia. I wish I had better news for you. I truly do. For now, I'm just... I'm just telling you what I believe best. Surely you must understand."

And it was back to the murmurs.

There was tired sigh from the doctor. "Very well. I shall convey in my notes to Master Jude that you may go about as you please, but _only_ within the manor. There is still a chance of recovery. It is a small chance, but it is something. And I shall not squander it by allowing you to run amok outdoors where your weakened body may contract anything else. Will this be acceptable, Lady Heartfilia?"

"...Yes, thank you, Doctor. Thank you."

Papers shuffled and a case snapped shut. "Then I shall take my leave. But remember, no strenuous activity. And eat and drink sparingly. Your metabolism seems to have slowed as well. I shall drop off more medication later in the week as soon as it is prepared."

Naruto and Lucy both backed away from the door when they heard the footsteps approach. The doctor who emerged was of average build. He looked to be in his mid fifties with his greying hair. His face was drawn into a concentrated scowl as he shuffled furiously through his notes, only looking up from them momentarily to regard Lucy. His expression softened and he gave her a sad little smile. "Take care of your mother, child," he said. Then he went back to concentrating on his papers, shuffling awkwardly down the hall, occasionally bumping into things as he did. Lucy stared at him as he went.

"C'mon, let's go see her," said Naruto.

Layla and Jude's bedroom was lavish, as it had always been. Portraits and artwork hung about the walls. It was furnished with a desk, bookshelves, and a mirrored dresser. And at the center of it all was a large canopy bed, curtains open wide revealing Layla Heartfilia propped up atop of it and staring right back at Naruto and Lucy with a surprised smile on her face. Even sick, she looked beautiful.

"Now who do we have here? Aren't you two supposed to be in class?" Layla scolded, playfully. The joyous tone of it, Naruto noticed, was diminished by her weak sounding voice. Even still, her smile managed to light up the entire room.

Her blonde hair, usually tied up into a perfect bun, fell frizzled, loosely over her frail shoulders. Her skin seemed pale now, even more so than the last time Naruto had seen her, and though her brown eyes glistened with happiness and compassion at the sight of the two kids, a part of it looked strained and forced, like a thinly veiled facade hiding her pain and frustration underneath.

Nevertheless, she gestured elegantly for them to come over. And they did. Lucy ran straight in, jumping up for for an embrace, while Naruto lapsed lazily onto the soft feather mattress of the canopy bed.

"I haven't seen you two in ages! Come to check up on me, have you?" she snickered, delicately. "Making sure I'm not skipping out of bedtime? It would seem our roles have been reversed for the time being."

Naruto smiled. "Yeah, well, we'll promise not to ground you if you let _us_ off the hook when you get better," he said. It was a shell of a joke, weighed down by the seriousness of Layla's sickness.

Layla smiled back warmly despite it. "I can't believe you, Naruto! Taking advantage of a sickly old woman like me. I'll see to it that you get double the punishment when I am free of this dreadful cold."

Naruto groaned. Lucy giggled. Layla chuckled softly relishing in the warmth of the room until suddenly, she started to cough. It sounded soft and harmless at first, but it grew worse, quickly becoming violent, like the breath of life was being forced out of her lungs. The two kids jumped and looked towards Layla with equal parts worry and horror.

The door to the room slammed open then, and Jude Heartfilia rushed in. His normally slick, greying hair was disheveled and his face was contorted into a frown of panic, accentuated with bloodshot eyes, probably from his lack of sleep.

"Layla! Layla, what's wrong." He ran to her, pushing Lucy and Naruto aside to check up on his wife.

*cough cough* "I'm fine, Dear." *cough* "Really" *cough* "It's nothing that hasn't happened before." *cough cough*

"Nonsense," he dismissed, picking up a glass from a tray beside the bed. "Here, drink this. Quickly!"

"I said I'm fine!" *cough* "The kids..."

Jude regarded both Lucy and Naruto as they stood awkwardly at the foot of the bed, unsure of what to do. He glared at them, like this was somehow their fault. "Let her rest," he ordered. "You two may visit her _after_ she recovers fully."

"Dear!" *cough cough* "It's fine." *cough* "Just-"

"OUT!" he demanded. His face was a mask of frustration and rage. "Both of you! NOW!"

Naruto and Lucy didn't need to be told again. They scurried out as fast as they could and the doors slammed shut behind them.

"Wow," commented Naruto, as soon as he caught his breath. "What's up with your old man lately? He's such a-" He stopped himself when he heard the unmistakable sound of Lucy sobbing beside him. And when he turned to face her, he quickly realized that he had been mistaken. She wasn't sobbing at all. No. Not this time. She sobbed when she had lost her favorite stuffed animal. She sobbed when the hairdresser ruined her hair. She sobbed when Naruto teased her a little too much.

This time was not the same. Lucy was openly crying now and the difference was immense. Naruto had never seen it before. He didn't know what to do. So he stared, shocked, unsure if he should just pat her on the head or maybe gather her into his arms. But she seemed so weak. So fragile. As if a single touch would shatter her into pieces.

So he did nothing and just gawked. "Are you okay?" he asked, stupidly.

She simply looked up at him, tears cascading down her red and blotchy face. "Please, Naruto. Help me."

**- 2 -**

Then, he awoke.

Bright sunlight met his eyes when he opened them. He felt tired, but alive. The wounds and soreness he had experienced before were nothing but fading memories now, which surprised him. The last time had awoken, he remembered deep cuts and scars across his arms but now when he looked, his skin was smooth and unbroken, not even leaving a trace of a scar. It didn't make much sense. Had he been sleeping for weeks? Or had his wounds somehow healed in a matter of hours? If it was the latter, it probably had something to do with whatever his power was. He took a mental note of it for later and sat up.

This time, he was alone. There was no nameless mystery girl lulling away his memories. There was no copy of himself trying to fill him in on the things he'd ought to know. There was only himself, the damned smell of roses, and the uncomfortable rock that he'd seemed to have slept on since the beginning of time.

But on the bright side, he got some memories back.

When his clone disappeared, certain memories had somehow resurfaced within his mind. Though they were fleeting, scant, and mostly useless for his current quest, he was immensely grateful for them. No longer was he a completely blank slate; no longer was he just an empty shell. The memories, no matter how fleeting they were, gave him a sense of identity. Even his own name no longer felt as numb as it once had before. It was completely familiar now and simply felt right. And he could probably recognize himself in a mirror again, too. Probably. His head hurt when he tried to remember the exact shape of his face, but that was something that could easily be remedied later.

As for the night before, he still couldn't recall any substantial part of it. He did remember seeing glimpses, though. A brutal fight. Destructive powers. A beautiful girl talking to him as he went unconscious. But that was it. There was nothing useful in those memories. Only confusion. Whatever magic was cast on him, it was doing it's job and doing it well.

And those other memories he had? The ones of his childhood past? He didn't know what to make out of _those_ quite yet.

That Lucy Heartfilia girl seemed quite interesting though.

The name ran through his mind once again. He even said it out loud, flinching when he did. But there was no pain. No searing headache that echoed through his head. So she definitely wasn't the girl he had fought with the night before. But why had he remembered this particular girl, then? And in this particular memory, they were both just children. He had been close with her and her family, it seemed. What could it mean?

Naruto shook his head to clear it. Most of the details were still completely obscured, but Naruto decided he would to look into it later. First, he needed to, in the words of his late clone:

'...head to Gilia Town. Seek out the master of Sabertooth. I think his name was Jienma or something...'

Naruto sighed, lost in thought. There was so much he needed to do. So many questions he needed answers for. He only hoped he could manage it all before it was too late. So with a heavy heart and burdened mind, he got on his feet and started in the direction pointed out by his clone.

**- 3 -**

The road to Gilia Town ran parallel to what looked like a great expanse of forest on one side, and a huge and steep canyon wall on the other. And it was quite busy, so Naruto was forced to walk along the narrow path of grass beside the paved road. Wagons and carriages rushed down dangerously on both sides of the road, most of them being pulled by various strange animals, while a few of the more lavish looking ones seemed to move on their own, probably through some sort of magic. The passengers, oblivious to Naruto for the most part, cared only enough to offer a few "Get out of the way"s and "Get off the road"s as they passed him. Yet annoyingly, whenever Naruto tried to hitch a ride with any of them, they seemed to speed up. It upset him at first, but when he looked down at the state of his attire, he couldn't really blame them.

The thick hooded-cloak he wore was in near tatters. Once upon a time, it was probably black and orange, but now was more like a dusty brown, sporting rips, cuts, and tears all over, especially at the sleeves and hem. And the stains... blood and dirt hung off the fabric like lead weights. He figured that he looked desperate and homeless to all the people passing by. The only reason he kept the cloak on was because the lighter colored shirt and pants he wore underneath made all the cuts and bloodstains more obvious. His appearance was already a mess and he didn't particularly want to look like some kind of psychotic murderer as well. Despite all that, his shoes were in inexplicably good condition. A small comfort for the long road ahead of him.

He had been walking for at least a few hours when, out of nowhere, a speeding carriage literally came flying from out of the forest on the other side of the road. The loud snapping of branches was the only warning of it's approach and it hurtled straight at Naruto when it emerged. He barely had time to blink as it swerved violently onto the narrow road. His mind roared at him to move - to dodge - but his body disobeyed. Instead, he raised both his arms out and literally caught the speeding carriage as it crashed into him. It seemed like the stupidest thing he could have done. It pushed him relentlessly, knocking the wind right out of him when he was smashed violently into the canyon wall at his back. He thought he was going to die, flattened like a human pancake, but only for a second. When all the dust settled and his senses returned to him, he realized that his arms had actually held out. The carriage had come to a complete stop, and aside from being a little winded, he felt perfectly fine.

First enhanced healing and now enhanced strength? His body was just full of nice little surprises.

This carriage, on the other hand, was not so pleasant a surprise. It could have killed somebody. A wave of anger washed over him.

"Hey, what the hell, idiot, you almost ran me over!" spat Naruto, pounding incessantly on the door of the carriage as he did.

He heard a small whimper coming from inside the carriage in reply. It sounded like a kid. He heard something else, too. It was muffled and indecipherable but... it also sounded sincerely apologetic. So Naruto took a deep breath, at odds with himself. Eventually, the better side of him won and his rage managed to settle a little.

"Whatever," he said. He didn't want to deal with it right now with so many other things on his mind. "Just be careful next time, okay? You could kill someone."

This time, there was a quick affirmative whimper from inside and so Naruto let the incident go, brushed himself off the canyon wall, and continued walking down the side of the road as if nothing ever happened.

Eventually, he heard the sounds of the carriage behind him starting up again and, this time, he made sure to make extra room between the road and himself for when it passed. Only it didn't. Instead, the carriage rolled up and kept pace beside him.

"Hey, mister!" shouted the same muffled voice from inside.

Naruto refused to even spare a glance. Instead, he sped into a jog. There were still a few embers of anger burning inside him and he didn't want to have them flare up.

But the carriage kept pace.

"Hey, Mister! Wait!" shouted the voice again, twice as loud as before.

This time, Naruto looked over speculatively when the when the door to the carriage slid to the side. The opening revealed a young girl, not older than thirteen or fourteen, with bouncy scarlet hair that rested just below her shoulders. She had a round and pretty pixie-like face and her brown eyes completed a look of what could only be described as exasperation.

"Whoa!" she exclaimed, eyes widening even more when she got a better look at Naruto. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," answered Naruto, catching her scanning the rough state of his clothing.

"But you look like-"

"Not from you," he dismissed. He berated himself for it afterward. Had he lied and made up some sob story that made her look the villain, he might have been able to garner enough sympathy for a free ride to Gilia. Damn his honesty.

"Phew..." she sighed. The relief was clearly visible on the perky girl's face. So Naruto just turned around and kept walking.

"Hey, w-wait! You're going to Gilia Town, right?" Curious, Naruto looked back at her. The girl's hands were tangled behind her back, and she seemed to be fidgeting a little. Her eyes darted back and forth nervously. "If you'd like, er... did you... did you want a ride?"

Naruto grinned. Finally something was going his way for once. "If you're offering."

"B-but there's a condition!" she added quickly.

"C-condition?" Naruto could hardly believe it. His grin fell completely away. _What, did she want money or something?_ Ridiculous. "You just crashed into me with your carriage!" he demanded.

She blinked. "Um... so? You look completely fine. And besides, you even said yourself that all those cuts and stuff on your clothes weren't my fault."

Naruto looked at her, aghast. Then quickly recovered himself. "You know what? It _was_ your fault. I just didn't want to make you feel bad, okay?"

"Hmph, liar," she accused with a deadpan look on her face. Then, she grinned and raised her hands in the air with the perfect smarmy confidence of someone who believed herself greater than everyone else. "Please... just because I'm young and I look innocent and all that, doesn't mean you can pull one off on me. I've been traveling for a long time, you know? I have lots of experience under my belt. Heee, I bet you must be super naive if you... think you... can... _WHAT!?_ What's up with that stupid look on your face? It's creeping me out."

Naruto held a look of pure shock and horror and he kept glancing behind her. He slowly inched back from her, stumbling a little, until his back hit the canyon wall. Then he suddenly thrust his finger out and pointed. "Holy Shit! _Whatthehellisthat! _Get down!" he shouted.

"Kyaaaaaa!" she screamed. The girl, suddenly frightened beyond belief, dashed out from her carriage and crushed herself into a tiny ball when she hit the ground. She tucked her head in as she quivered there, eyes clamped shut, seemingly waiting until the horrible, dreadful, and menacing whatever-it-was to ravish her or something. She swore that she could hear growling and ominous sounding footsteps slowly approaching her, which only prompted her to scrunch up even further. An agonizingly long minute passed as she waited. Then two. Then five. Finally, figuring that she was somehow still alive, she gathered the entirety of her courage and peeked out with a single eye.

There was nothing there.

She immediately shot up to her feet, now a scarlet-haired being of pure fury. She pointed angrily over to Naruto, the entire world burning before her eyes. "You tricked me!"

Only Naruto wasn't there anymore either.

Confused, she looked around frantically until she spotted him already fifty paces away, walking casually as if nothing had ever happened.

"Y-you! Come back here, right now!" she demanded. Even as she said it, she was already back in her carriage, starting it back up again and rolling up beside Naruto as he walked.

Naruto held a satisfied grin on his face and stretched. "Oh no!" he mocked. "The _experienced_ little girl is back for her revenge. Too bad she's a greedy, gullible idiot too."

The door to the carriage burst open, nearly flying off it's hinges. And this time, Naruto got a much better look at the girl. She wore a simple, if a little plain, one-piece sundress that was mostly white with matching shoes. Admittedly, they looked good on her, in a cutely innocent sort of way. The only problem was that her slightly curled and flowing red hair now resembled something akin to a roaring bonfire, seemingly floating above her as she stood there, one hand holding open the door of the carriage and the other balled into a tight fist.

Naruto laughed. If she had been a little older, perhaps the expression pure hatred on her face would have looked scary. Now, it simply made her look like an adorable pixie-faced girl with a grudge, hardly anything to be afraid of.

Or so he thought. As soon as he blinked, he was suddenly faced with an adorable pixie-faced girl with a grudge, who now also happened to be armed to the teeth. Naruto gawked. In less than a second, hundreds, no thousands, of weapons had materialized, surrounding this once harmless little girl. Short swords, knives, and daggers, they floated in the air about her, blotting out the sky, all of them pointed dangerously at Naruto.

"Oh Crap," he muttered, only just now regretting everything he had ever said to this little girl. But it was too late for regrets now.

"DIE!" she screamed.

**- 4 -**

Imagine a swarm of angry hornets. A swarm that followed you wherever your moved. A swarm that, for some reason, could only fly in straight lines and sharp angles until they crashed into something.

Now imagine that the angry hornets were not hornets at all, but small razor sharp weapons. Knives, swords, and daggers. Those sorts of weapons. They were still angry, of course, still hell-bent on your death. The difference was that the weapons could not be killed. Could not easily be destroyed. Could not be stopped. And they would still follow you ruthlessly until their queen was taken out.

This was what Naruto faced. He had weighed his options carefully, considered his own latent abilities and fighting experience. Then, he followed through with the only logical course of action that would keep him alive. He ran.

"Stop _running!_" the red-headed girl rasped in frustration.

The command fell on deaf ears as Naruto continued to run up, yes _vertically up_, the canyon wall. He didn't exactly know how he was doing it. Nor did he really care at the moment. There were more pressing matters at the moment. Namely, staying alive. He glanced at the ground beneath/behind him, and guessed that was already close to a hundred feet up the wall. There was only about sixty feet to go until he reached the top, and salvation, yet still the vengeful girl's attacks continued.

"Just _die_ already!" the she screamed.

Naruto didn't respond. His mind couldn't seem to wrap around how strange the violent words sounded when honeyed by such a sweet voice. Also, his attention was more focused on how _not_ to become a pin cushion at the moment. Naruto looked briefly to his right, just in time to catch the vicious swarm of weapons about to intercept him. Instinctively, his feet released the grip it had on the canyon wall and he fell a bit. The swarm barely missed him, furiously ricocheting into the wall right in front of him. Or above him? Since he was facing up at the moment. Okay, this vertigo he was experiencing was definitely not helping matters.

He skid down the rocky wall for a while until his feet managed to grip the canyon wall again, then he side-stepped the rain of falling blades that resulted from her missed attack and continued to dash up. With determined focus, he willed his legs to move faster. All he needed to do was reach the top. Once he was there, he reasoned that the girl would lose line of sight and her attacks should finally stop.

He looked again, spotted another swarm of gleaming steel beelining to his position, and once again, managed to dodge them. Thankfully, for all the power this girl had, she was terribly predictable. He heard her scream out in frustration when she missed yet another of her attacks. But for some reason, she sounded closer than she should have been.

Naruto briefly glanced down and his heart dropped into his stomach. The red-haired girl was somehow floating. No, she was _flying_, after him. What the hell was she? If he knew that magic was able to let people fly, he would have stuck to the ground. Damn his lost memories.

Naruto started to run faster with more desperation in his strides. His lungs hurt. His legs ached. But he needed to get up there. Up to the top. _But why?_ She could just fly after him now. Maybe he could find some kind of crevice to hide in up there? Maybe she couldn't fly that far up? Maybe she would finally cool down when she got some fresher air? Maybe... ah, who was he kidding, nothing was sure anymore. Going to the top of the canyon was simply a gamble; his only option at the moment. And next to such enticing options as 'falling to your doom' or 'getting riddled with blades _prior_ to falling to your doom', getting to the top of the canyon sounded pretty damn good to him.

"Give up already," she yelled. "You can't run forever." Naruto frowned at how right she was.

A few more attacks came after him. They were getting much more accurate now, and more frequent, especially now that she was getting closer. Scarily, accurate, in fact. In the last swarm of weapons barraging him, his arm and leg got cut. He hoped they weren't deep but couldn't spare the concentration needed to look at the moment.

Then, it happened. For no reason at all, he lost the grip. Whatever it was that was holding his feet onto the canyon wall just... disappeared. Poof. No warning. Just gone. The bottom of his shoes scraped in futility against rocky wall as he tried to keep his momentum going upwards. He was so close to the top too. So very close. But so very quickly, he stopped ascending altogether. And just as quickly, he began to fall, and from this height, nearly a hundred and fifty feet off the ground, his death seemed pretty imminent.

At the same moment, several hundred weapons pounded into the rock where he just was. Ironically, his falling had just saved him, but was now about to be the end of him. Naruto couldn't help but yelp as he scanned the wall for anything to latch on to. There was nothing that he could reach.

The scarlet-headed girl, who was still a little below him, cheered. "Hah! I Got you, dummy!" She made a face at him. Arms back. Eyes closed. Tongue sticking out at him while her weapons orbited around her in the image of a giant middle finger. It kind of pissed Naruto off. But it also gave him an opportunity.

As he fell, he twisted his body completely in mid-air, managing to face the other way. Then, he kicked himself off the wall as hard as he could. It felt kind of exhilarating. Like he was flying, almost. And when he jumped off the wall, he aimed himself towards the girl who still seemed to be floating there, still making that face at him, without a care in the world.

She eventually spotted him, a couple of seconds later. But by then, it was a couple of seconds too late for her to get away. She knew exactly what was going on.

"Hey! Stoooop!" she demanded. It was futile. Naruto was already falling towards her. He couldn't stop himself if he wanted to. "Idioooooot-OOF"

Naruto latched onto the girl. It resembled something like a hug. His arms were wrapped around her skinny shoulders. He didn't expect her to hold his weight right away. He figured they might fall or wobble a little before she adjusted her magic to his weight and they began floating again. But that didn't happen. Instead, they both sunk like rocks. Wind whipped violently all around them as they fell.

"Are you stupid!?" she demanded. "Let GO! Let go right now! Let GOOOOOOO!"

"Dammit, just shut up and use more of your magic!" yelled Naruto back. "Hurry!" They were falling faster and faster now. Gaining speed with each half-second that passed.

"I can't!" she screamed, over the roaring winds. She was trying to fight him off now. To punch him. To kick him. But their bodies were too close. And her blows were surprisingly weak. Her weapons were still orbiting around them both and they were all inwardly pointed. But they didn't close in. Naruto realized then that the girl's control with the weapons was probably too limited for her to hit him without hitting herself in this situation.

"C'mon," Naruto pleaded. "You can fly, right? Just do what you did before!"

"I can't!" she screamed again. This time meeker than before and mostly muffled by the wind. "I can't! _I can't._"

_Shit._ Another of his plans gone horribly wrong. A hundred different scenarios played out through his head in a single second. All of them impossible, wrong, or unrelated to his current predicament. All of them except for the ones where he would die and leave a horrible stain on the ground.

The girl suddenly latched on to Naruto, tightly. It surprised him. Her arms wrapped around under his arms and he could feel her bury her face into his chest. Naruto could feel her shaking. She was afraid. It hit him.

_But this was her fault_, reasoned Naruto. She was the one who dragged him into the mess. She was the one who hit him with her carriage from out of nowhere. If she didn't start attacking him none of this would have happened in the first place...

But she was also young, spontaneous, and passionate. Such things combined reminded him of something. Of someone. Someone he used to care about? But who...

Ah, what the hell, thought Naruto as he let her go. If there was no way to save himself, then there was no point in taking this girl with him.

"Hey, I let go," Naruto said in a hurried manner. There was maybe several seconds left before they hit the ground. "You can fly now, right? Go on."

She didn't let go. Instead, she held him tighter. Somehow, it felt... nostalgic? Like deja-vu. Like something like this had happened to him in the past. He shook his head free of the thought. There was no time to reminisce. The ground was rising dangerously fast.

"Hey, what the hell!" This time it was Naruto making the demands, trying to push her off of him. "Let go, dammit! C'mon! Fly already!"

She shook her head into his chest, blinding him with all the red hair flying into his face. She gripped her arms around him even tighter. "I'm sorry," she said between sobs. "I'm sorry. I'm _really sorry_."

"Dammit, just let go! Save yourself!"

She shook her head again, adamantly. "I'm sorry, Nee-san. Don't go. Don't leave me. Please. I'll be strong enough next time. I swear."

Naruto's eyes widened as he continued to try in vain to tear this nonsensical girl off of him. But there were only a few seconds left until they hit the ground. So he did the only thing he could think of then. In a single motion, he twisted himself around so that he would hit the ground first. He hoped his body might be able to break the fall for the little for the girl on top of him. It was desperation, and probably pointless, but if it even helped her a little, he would be glad.

But still... why did she seem so familiar? Naruto shook his head one last time. There was no sense in it now. Maybe his life would flash before his eyes before he died. He'd like that. To remember it all, even for a second.

That was his thought before they hit the ground.

* * *

**A/N: **Build up. That is what this chapter is. And that was what the previous two chapters were too. Sorry if it seems to be dragging on, but I'm trying to weave together a complex story with plenty of depth and unpredictable twists and turns. Plus my writing style tends to be overly descriptive -_-;; Sorry. Can't help it.

The reason for the this new OC girl will make more sense next chapter. I tried to make it as painfully obvious as possible that she is somehow related to Erza. Remember, Erza doesn't remember anything about her past before the Tower of Heaven. So if she had family, she wouldn't remember.

As for Naruto's past with Lucy, you'll have to trust me on it. It will culminate with the events that will happen later on.


	4. A Hate-filled Partnership

**A/N: **So, this chapter is finally done. Added about 5k words and I renamed the chapter. Btw, I'm glad you dislike my OC. You're meant to sort of hate her. It's harder than you think to write antagonists who aren't, you know, all evil and bent on world domination and stuff. So I think I'm on the right track with her. She won't be in the story for too long but she _is_ necessary for my plot to work. I ask you all to put up with her for now.

* * *

**Chapter Three: A Hate-filled Partnership**

**- 1 -  
**

_"Hey, why are you laughing?" demanded Naruto. "It's not funny. I'm serious."_

_The breathless laughter of the girl continued, despite his objections. "I-I'm sorry," she wheezed, between her hysterical fits. "It's just... you want to be some kind of ninja leader? Really? Hahahaha-I can't... You're killing me!"_

_"You... what kind of monster laugh's at another person's dream?" accused Naruto, hot anger quickly rising in him. "And Ninja are real!"_

_"N-Naru... to... please!" Her lithe body convulsed, the euphoric expression on her face obscured by her long hair when she clutched her stomach in pain. It looked joyous and agonizing all at once. "S-Spare me... Bwahahahahahaha!"_

_"WHATEVER!" he relented, finally having enough. "What's _your _dream, then? I bet it's dumb._"

_"Dumb?" Her laughter left instantaneously, leaving behind only a cocky smirk. "Hah! My dream isn't make-believe like yours. I'm going to be an S-class mage," she said, nodding proudly to herself. "But not just any S-class mage. I'll be the strongest, most beautiful, S-class mage of Fairy Tail ever!" She pumped her fist into the air and struck a winning pose, waiting for Naruto to react with excitement and awe._

_He yawned instead, though mostly because she had laughed so hard at his own dream earlier. "Tch, booooring"_

_"What did you say?" She immediately shot a dangerous glare over to him, daring him to repeat the word. _

_"Bo - ring," repeated Naruto, arms crossed. Then he met her dangerous glare with one of his own. "Want me to say it again?"_

_The girl clenched her fists, looking like she was about to annihilate him, but suddenly, her expression relaxed and she gave him a snide smile. Her favorite kind. "You just don't understand. When you're an S-class mage, especially one from Fairy Tail, your whole world changes. Everyone respects you. You get all the highest paying jobs. AND you get to be on the cover of Sorcerer all the time! I'll be rich AND famous!" Out of nowhere, she produced a copy of Weekly Sorcerer magazine and opened it up to him. "See! Look how amazing they are. And they all look like they're having a blast! Wouldn't you want to be like that?"_

_Naruto batted the magazine away, scratched his head and a genuinely puzzled look tugged at his face. "Yeah, that sounds great and all, but..." he started, before shaking his head. "Nevermind."_

_"But?" she screeched, incredulously. "But what?" Naruto could tell that she wasn't used to having her dream scrutinized. But he couldn't care less and said it anyways._

_"But with the power that you have, couldn't you do so much more?"_

**- 2 -**

Naruto noticed three things when he woke up this time.

First, was that he was somehow still alive and in one piece. He didn't sense any broken bones or sore muscles. The one-hundred and fifty-ish foot drop that should have splattered him into a gory mess on the road seemed to have very little effect on him. This meant that his body was far more resilient than even Naruto himself thought possible.

The second thing he noticed was something poking repeatedly into the side of his head. It was extremely annoying. Infuriating even. But he couldn't seem to do anything about it because of the third thing he noticed...

He was locked in an awkward embrace. It wrapped around his arms and chest and grasped all the way around his back. It felt comforting at first, but then it began to feel too tight. He shot open his eyes only to then feel a painful squeezing around his hands and legs as well. When he managed to look down towards his body, he realized the truth of it. Someone had completely tied him up. He was bound in some kind of thick green vine from his neck to his ankles. Not only that, it looked like he had been moved into the nearby forest. There were trees all around him and the sun's rays above were obscured by leaves and branches.

"...the hell?"

He struggled against the bindings but his efforts were half-hearted. He could tell, almost immediately, that there was no way he could free himself on his own. He also had a strong suspicion of who the culprit was and his eyes searched frantically for her. He didn't have to look far.

"You!" he snarled. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Untie me!"

The small-ish red-headed girl was sitting a few feet away with her knees tucked into her chest. She wore an impassive expression and was holding onto a long stick. Casually, she poked him in the forehead with it and responded to his angry demand with a simple, "No."

Filled with a sudden ferocity, Naruto struggled with more effort this time. The entire focus of his will was bent on breaking free from his bindings. But he only succeeded in making himself look like a squirming worm.

The girl giggled. "It took me an hour to wrap you up. I made sure to use enough vine to hold down a dozen angry vulcan. Then I added about twice as much more. You won't be getting free without my help." A single knife materialized in front of her, as if to emphasize her point, then disappeared as suddenly as it had come.

"How _dare_ you!" Naruto spat.

"How dare _you,_" she yelled with equal fervor. "You almost killed me!"

"You were trying to kill _me!_" he reminded her.

"Yeah? But that was only because you... because..." her angry look soon lost it's color and evaporated into more of an uncomfortable stare, as if she had suddenly discovered something embarassing about herself.

This time, Naruto smirked. "Because what?" he goaded. The incident was clearly this girl's fault and she looked like she was beginning to realize it.

"Tch." The girl looked away, her eyes downcast in an awkward manner. "Look, we can point fingers and blame each other all day and nobody would get anywhere. So I'm giving you two options. I can just leave you here all tied up to rot or whatever. _Or_ we can come to a simple arrangement that will get us both what we want."

Naruto gaped openly, brow twitching in frustration. This girl was _actually_ refusing to own up to her mistake. Not only that, but she was trying to take advantage of his current powerless state. He could hardly believe it. He didn't even know what to say to her at this point.

The girl nonchalantly poked him in the head with her stick again.

"Stop that!"

"So, how 'bout it?" she asked.

Naruto refused with all his might. He struggled. Squirmed. Wiggled. Flailed. Called upon whatever power lay dormant within him and then flopped around some more. Nothing helped.

The girl giggled again.

"FINE!" he let go, between heavy breaths. He made sure to infuse every ounce of his tone with scathing hatred. "What's the arrangement?"

"I knew you would come to your senses." The girl smiled devilishly and tossed the stick away.

"Not like I have a choice."

She shrugged and stood up, brushing the dust from her white dress. Her actions so far made Naruto rethink her age. She was far more mature and conniving than her youthful look let on. "It's a simple arrangement, really. I just need you to help me with something when we get to Gilia Town. That's all."

Naruto scowled. "Help you with what?"

"I want to join Sabertooth," she told him.

Sabertooth. He needed to go there too. Turns out their goals were similar but it was too bad that he hated this girl's guts for blackmailing him like this. Naruto pretended to consider it. "And how am I supposed to help you with that? That's a mage guild isn't it? I don't even know any magic."

"Right," she said sarcastically. "I crashed into you head-on with my carriage and you were completely fine. You ran _vertically_ up Gilia Canyon. You _jumped_ from the _top_ of said canyon and lived. Not to mention your clothes have blood and cuts all over them but there's not a single scratch on your body. Yeah, I checked while you were unconscious. So tell me again that thats not some kind of magic. You're such a horrible liar."

Naruto bit back an emotional response. He couldn't deny anything she had said.

"So anyways, joining Sabertooth isn't anything like joining the other mage guilds in Fiore. There's only one way to become a member, and thats to prove yourself at the battle tournament they hold once every year."

Realization hit Naruto and he grimaced. "You want me to help you win this tournament?"

"Now you're getting it," she confirmed with a smile. "And I don't even have to win, I just need to make it into the top five for admission."

Naruto turned baffled. "But wouldn't we be fighting each other if I entered the tournament? How does that help _you_ get into the top five?"

"We won't be fighting. You'll be my partner," she explained. "The tournament lets you fight alone or as a group of two."

"That hardly seems fair."

"Right!? We'll have an advantage right from the start."

Naruto sighed. The whole thing sounded like nothing but a gigantic pain in the ass. "Do _I_ get anything out of this?"

The girl cocked her head to the side a little. "I'll untie you and give you a ride to Gilia Town."

Naruto waited for something more. She added another of her smirks. "That's it? Isn't that completely one-sided? How is that a fair deal at all?"

"Life isn't fair," she gestured with ease.

His fingers were twitching in their bindings. He wanted to strangle her so badly.

_Alright, calm down Naruto. Just think_. All he needed to do was to agree to her ridiculous demands and once she set him free, he could just escape or something. He was fairly confident he could simply outrun her now that he knew his body was far more capable than he gave himself credit for. Heck, he can probably overpower her if he got into a close enough range to make her power those weapons useless.

"Alright, fine. I'll help you. You can untie me now."

The girl sighed and rolled her eyes. "Nice try, I know what you're thinking," she said. "_Obviously, _there'll be a precaution to make sure you hold up your end of the bargain before I untie you. I'm not stupid, you know."

Naruto grimaced. _Shit._ "What do you mean, precaution?"

She reached lazily behind her and pulled out a single sheet of paper. When she shoved it closer to his face, he realized that it was a thick sheet of vellum. The runes and symbols on it seemed to shimmer, purple then red then black then purple again. The girl smiled knowingly at him. "I'll need you to sign one of these."

Naruto looked at it, pointedly, for a bit. He didn't get it. "What is it?" he asked. The girl raised a single scarlet eyebrow, looking genuinely surprised.

"Really?" she waved the glowing sheet of vellum even closer to his face. "Are you dumb? Everyone knows what this is." When Naruto's eyes continued to stare blankly at it in confusion, she added. "Wow, have you lived in a cave your entire life or something?"

Naruto growled. "Just tell me already!"

"How scary," she feigned, giving him a frank look. "It's an enchantment. A contract, really. When signed, it magically binds two people together to certain terms. I made this one while you were unconscious. Would you like me to read out the terms to you?"

Naruto said nothing, and considered his other options instead. He didn't seem to have any. It was looking grim.

"No? Then I'll just give you the gist of it. Basically, we'll be bound to each other until my body gets stamped with the Sabertooth insignia. Simple, right?"

"Wait, bound to each other?"

"With magic, duh. Our minds and bodies will be linked a bit. Don't worry, I won't be able to read your thoughts or anything like that. We'll just each be able to tell where the other is at all times. And if one person gets hurt, the other will feel it too. That way there's an incentive for you to protect me during the tournament, and vice versa. Simple and effective. So, you'll agree, right?"

Not good. The girl looked serious. Her expression was hungry and it didn't look like she was bluffing. There had to be a way out of this. "Alright, but I can't sign it when I'm tied up like this. Can you untie my hands at least?"

Her smile widened at the corner of her lips. It turned from somewhat cute to well within the boundary of wicked within a single heartbeat. "No need to for you to sign anything," she told him. "These contracts are bound by blood."

"What!?" Before he could object, a knife materialized in the air and flew across his cheek. He yelped a bit, in pain, and then he felt one of the girl's fingers slide across the shallow cut. He watched, helplessly as she smeared his blood vertically across the vellum. Then she stopped and stared at him for a bit for some reason.

"Eww, that's really creepy to see in action," she said. "Your cut healed right away." The girl took another finger and poked him in the cheek a few times, inspecting the cut that Naruto could feel was no longer there.

"Dammit, stop that."

"Sorry," she said. "Curious."

With the same knife she had cut Naruto with, she slid the tip of her index finger across the blade and held it out. Crimson blood, nearly the same color as her hair, bubbled up to the surface and she smeared it across the enchanted vellum right over top of Naruto's blood. Then, she shook it to dry, the same way one might dry a recently inked piece of paper.

"It'll just be a second now," she said, smiling to Naruto. As if on cue, the the enchanted vellum began to glow blue. Brighter and brighter until it became a glowing ball more brilliant than the sun. Naruto stared, enraptured, until the glowing ball suddenly burst in every direction, engulfing both himself and the red-headed girl in luminescent blue.

When he opened his eyes again, the girl had already cut him free. Loose vine hung about him and he could move normally again.

"So, I guess thats that," said the girl as Naruto got up. "Let's go. I'm getting hungry."

_This girl... just like that? _She hit him with her carriage. Tried to kill him. Practically kidnapped him, Bound him to some kind of contract. Then she just walks away like it was the most normal thing in the world to do? Something _had_ to be wrong with her. He kept the thoughts to the back of his mind.

Naruto noticed that he was feeling hungry too. But he didn't know if it was from his own stomach or if this girl was telling the truth about the contract and he was feeling her hunger as well.

"Hey," Naruto called out.

The red-headed girl turned around and gave him a happy whimsical expression, as if they were now best buddies or some ridiculous notion like that. "Hmm? What is it?"

"We haven't introduced each other yet..." He had to test it. In a gesture of good faith, he raised his hand level, as if to offer the girl a handshake. Puzzled, but not really suspecting anything, the girl reached out to accept it. That was when Naruto made his move. He threw his open hand across her face, slapping her with a blow powered nearly entirely by frustration and anger.

Through some unknown phenomenon, Naruto felt the blow to his own cheek just as hard and his head flung to the side from the force of it. His frustration and anger hurt like a bitch.

"Y-y-y-you!" growled the girl, shocked and angry all at once. "Take this!"

Naruto didn't see it, but he sure as hell felt it. She had kicked him. More specifically, she had kicked him in the balls. The pain that exploded within him was indescribable. He saw stars fly aross his vision. He instinctively grabbed at his loins, toppled over and curled himself into an awkward position. He groaned, loudly.

In front of him, he noticed the red-headed girl now several shades paler than before, mimicking his own movements.

It was a long while before either of them said anything.

"Oh god," the girl suddenly moaned indelicately. "I... I didn't know it... hurt like this..."

Naruto nodded painfully in agreement, tears in his eyes. "You and me... both..."

The girl coughed. "Truce?" she moaned.

"Truce," moaned Naruto back. "N-Name's N-Naruto... by the way."

"F-Fara," she said back, with a lot of difficulty.

"Can't say... it's a... p-pleasure."

"D-don't... worry..." She slowly shook her head. "S-s'all mine..."

**- 3 -**

Naruto figured that getting kicked in the groin wasn't all that bad. Sure, it hurt like hell. And it incapacitated you for a while if you weren't expecting it. And it sometimes cut your chances of having children in the future. Oh, and did he mention that it hurt like hell? Okay, so it _was_ almost entirely bad. But unexpectedly, Naruto got something good out of it: another of his memories.

No, seriously. Naruto had no idea how or why. Perhaps it was the excruciatingly intense pain. Or maybe it was because he had almost blacked out, thus activating his dormant subconscious. Maybe one of that girl's powers was recovering memories through kicking people in the balls. Unlikely, but... In the end, it didn't matter what it was. Just that it triggered a 'dream'. Another one. A daydream this time. And as he followed the red-headed girl, Fara, through the forest, he set a portion of his mind to reliving the memory fully.

It was a continuation of the one he had about Lucy when they were kids. He was back to the opulent mansion and back to his younger self. And when he searched his ten-year old thoughts, one quickly bubbled to the surface for him: Lucy's words. And with them came a swell of emotions.

_"Please Naruto, help me."_ Those were the words that currently ran through his mind like a poison. He agonized over them. They corrupted his thoughts. Invaded his dreams. He couldn't seem to go a single moment without those words haunting him, bringing him to a cold sweat. He wanted, badly, to be able to do something for her. But he couldn't. Not really.

What was worse were the words she had said to him mere seconds afterwards:

_"Sorry Naruto, forget that." Lucy had said, tears still fresh in her eyes. "I don't know what came over me. I... Sorry... I know there's nothing you can do. This is my problem. I'll... somehow... something..."_ Then she ran away into her room and locked everyone out. That was probably the first time Lucy had ever lied to him, too. He hated it.

After that day, everything went about the same as before with Naruto and Lucy. They would attend their magic lessons as they normally did. There would be some bickering and bantering between them, as there always was. When the mood was right, he would joke with her and drag her out of the manor for various adventures, like usual. They would smile and laugh and have their fun. And when a full week had passed, it was like nothing had changed at all. Nothing, that is, except _everything_.

It felt as if melancholy itself had become a vengeful ghost, following him wherever he went. His expensive meals tasted like crap. Fun wasn't _fun_. Magic classes were boring as hell... ok, so that hadn't changed. But Lucy had. No longer bright and bubbly, Lucy was like a whole different person and Naruto decided that he absolutely hated it. The fakes smiles and empty laughter of his best friend in Fiore (title pending) was crushing his soul and he quickly resolved that he would find a way to fix her at any cost.

Which was why, right now, he was going straight in to consult with Lucy's mom herself. To get to the bottom of things. Maybe he could do something to help.

Except that didn't turn out that way he had planned. Guards were posted at her doors and allowed nobody inside, not even Naruto, probably at Jude Heartfilia's orders. So he took the ninja route, and snuck in. It wasn't too difficult. A Sexy no Jutsu here, a walk-right-through-two-perverted-guards there, and he was in without a hitch. Except Layla wasn't inside.

_Great. Had she changed rooms or something? But then why would the guards..._ Approaching voices quickly startled Naruto into hiding. He chose to jump into a nearby closet, filled entirely with soft and lacy things that all smelled of lavender. When he peeked out a little, he saw Layla entering the room, supported by a pink-haired lady wearing strange red robes. Layla was propped up onto the bed while, in the closet, Naruto steadied his breath, heart beating out of his chest. He didn't particularly like eavesdropping on people, but this time he really couldn't help it.

"You said you know the cause my sickness?" started Layla, a hint of hope in her voice. She sounded as weak as ever and when Naruto opened the closet doors just-a-crack to take a look, he saw that she was even paler than before. Almost ghostly white now. It broke Naruto's heart.

The pink-haired woman with her nodded. "Layla, I believe you are cursed," she said. She was a strange woman, wearing a red cape over a green blouse. And she carried with her a long wooden staff and a stern look. Cherry-blossom hair was tied into a single round bun at the back of her head and long bangs fell down across each side of her face. Even though Naruto didn't have the best view of her from his vantage point inside the closet, the lady looked kind of pretty. A few too many lines across her sharp face showed her advanced age, but she was striking nonetheless. He wondered who she was.

Layla looked up, dubiously. "Cursed?"

"Yes."

"As in I have bad luck? Or as in someone had cursed me?"

"The second, mostly."

"Porlyusica," Layla sighed. "I know you're a healer, but that just sounds silly."

The pink-haired lady, Porlyusica, scowled. "Silly? You incorrigible woman. You were once a mage, were you not? Then you should know what curses are. They're a dangerous subset of dark magic."

"They're old wives' tales," dismissed Layla. "Used to frighten children. I've even told Lucy and Naruto that they might get cursed if should they not attend their magic lessons every day. It worked rather well."

Inside the closet, Naruto's eyes narrowed at Layla's revealed deception. Or perhaps his own gullibility. He really believed that one.

"Curse magic is very real, Layla. Banned, sure. Completely illegal, of course. But such dark magic exists, I assure you. And the curse afflicted upon you..." Porlyusica drew her staff and tilted it gently towards Layla's head. Glowing runes appeared to circle it, then Layla, before evaporating into a colorful smoky mist. "It is special."

"Special? What do you mean?"

Porlyusica's mouth became a thin line. "Powerful. I can't even begin to imagine anyone capable of casting such a high level curse. Perhaps Zeref himself? _Now_ I am being silly. But it would appear that you have some rather dangerous enemies, Layla."

Layla couldn't seem to decide if she wanted to look baffled or awed. "E-Enemies? I... Enemies?"

"Everyone has enemies, Layla, whether you know of them or not."

"But... you're sure? About this curse, then?"

Porlyusica nodded solemnly. "In this, I have no doubt."

"There are no other possibilities? Perhaps, you could be mistaken?" Naruto could scarcely watch. Layla looked so desperate.

"Layla..." Porlyusica started, about to say something. She hesitated, then stopped herself, then shook her head.

Layla was devastated. "I'm sorry. It's just a little hard to take in. So... a curse then." Her eyes brightened for a fleeting moment when she thought of something. "But you're a healer, aren't you, Porlyusica? Surely you can remove such a curse? I heard you were the best. The best in all of Fiore."

The pink-haired healer smiled a wan smile. "The best in Earth Land... once. Likely I still am. But..." Layla's expression dropped into oblivion at the word 'but'. "I'm sorry, Layla. I'm not what I once was. Even now my powers are starting to deteriorate. At present, all I could hope to accomplish is to slow the curse's effects. It would give you another week. Two, at most."

"I... I see," let out Layla, her face full of hopelessness.

The healer put a supporting hand on Layla's shoulder. If there is anything I can do-"

"Then do it," Layla interrupted all of a sudden.

Porlyusica looked dumbfounded by Layla's sudden rudeness. Even Naruto was surprised. "Pardon?"

Layla gripped the healers arms and looked her straight in the eyes. "You said you can give me another week? Even two? Then please. As much as time as you can. I'll do anything."

"Layla..."

"I can't give up. I won't. As long as I still draw breath, I'll fight this curse. I'll find a way." The determination in her eyes was fierce and Naruto was awed by the strength she showed during such adversity. This was the woman he held deep respect for. Someone he thought of almost as a mother.

Porlyusica gave her a resigned look. Then a respectful one. "You know, I have heard all sorts of stories about you from the doctors before I came. Apparently, they've all had quite a handful from you. You avoid most of your prescribed medications-"

"But some of them are clearly sedatives. Taking those would be the same as being dead!"

The healer continued, despite the interruption. "You refuse to stay in bed. Even your husband has trouble keeping you contained. Worst patient in history, they called you. Wouldn't last another week, they estimated."

Layla frowned in disbelief. "They did?"

The older woman nodded. "Yet here you are, alive, though still a terrible patient. And now I can see why. You remind me of someone I know. Like a prettier version of Makarov. Taller too, and with more hair." Porlyusica smiled warmly, a smile that even made Layla blush.

"W-Who?" Layla asked.

"Nevermind," she said, shaking her head. "But, very well. If you are that determined, then I may have something else that might be able to release you from that curse."

Layla brightened intensely. "Something else? Do tell."

"Layla, what do you know about dragons?"

**- 4 -**

That was how Naruto's latest past-memory ended. It got him thinking. What the hell were dragons? And why did his memories always end with cliffhangers? It was annoying as hell.

Suddenly thrust back into the present, Naruto felt even more anger fill him. He reminded himself that he was currently following his captor - err contractor, AKA supreme-bitch of the universe, Fara, grudgingly through the dense forest. It seemed to take ages and it didn't even look like they were getting anywhere. One tree blended in with another and another and another... every section they hiked through looked exactly the same as the previous one. The ground sometimes shifted, alternating from dry dirt to wet mud to mossy earth, but other than that, there was no trail. No path. No colored brick road to pave the way. _Of course not, Naruto, it's a fucking forest._ God damn did he feel angry right now. He tried to keep his mind off of it and, of course, failed.

On top of that, he had no clue how this girl was finding her way through the seemingly endless maze of brown and green, yet she moved quickly and efficiently. As easily as if it were her own backyard. When they came to a large tree that blocked their path, Fara, without any hesitation, turned left. Then when they came across another large tree that looked identical to the other one, Naruto followed as she confidently proceeded right. They passed a stream, more trees, some rocks, then even more trees, another stream... How deep had she dragged him into the forest, anyways? So she _was_ being serious when she said that she would've left him there to rot if he didn't agree to her demands. The bitch.

Eventually, she stopped. Looked left. Looked right. Looked up. Then she scratched the back of her dark red hair a little and slowly turned around. When he saw her face, it was stricken with confusion and worry. Naruto returned the look.

"Eh heh heh... Ummm hey, I think we're lost," she said.

"WHAT!?"

He opened his mouth to vent his frustration. To tell her off. Even his hands were starting to move up... maybe to strangle her? He wouldn't be suprised. But then the girl suddenly burst into haughty laughter. _What the fuck?_ "Just kidding, the exit's right over there," she cracked. She was really enjoying herself, wasn't she? Naruto just kept hating her more and more. "You should've seen the look on your face."

Naruto's glare intensified. "What the hell is your problem?"

"I'm just trying to lighten the mood a little," she said, shrugging, and ignoring the wrath of his anger entirely. "We're going to be in each other's company for at least another three days. It doesn't have to be unpleasant."

_The fucking nerve._ "After everything you've done, it does," growled Naruto. "Let's just get this done and go our seperate ways. I've had enough."

Fara sighed then waved her hands in a non-comital gesture. "Have it your way then. Don't say I didn't try..."

Naruto boiled. He didn't know such anger was possible until now. But barely, he held it in. He was better than this. So he breathed slowly and deliberately, concentrating on other things as he followed her. _Oh look, a rock... round, boring, calming... perfect for throwing at someone's head - No no no, Naruto, just keep walking. Focus on the trees... Yeah, the trees. Hey, wait a minute, they've got red leaves for some reason, same color as her hair. And the flat bark sort of resembles her washboard chest - DAMMIT Naruto! Just stop thinking._ A deathly aura followed him when they were finally out of the forest and on the roads again. They somehow emerged directly across from Fara's parked carriage.

"Just a minute," said Fara. "I need to get my bag. It's in the carriage."

Huh? Get her bag? But if it was in the carriage, why wouldn't they just get in and ride?

It wasn't until he got closer that Naruto realized that the carriage was a complete and utter wreck. As if something had crushed it. As if a giant fist had punched it mercilessly into the road. Or... as if Naruto had fallen onto it from a hundred and fifty feet in the air. Oh... so that was what happened.

"The only nice thing we had, too..." said Fara absently to herself as she shook her head.

But if the carriage was out of order, that meant...`

"Didn't you say you were going to give me a ride?" _And doesn't that make our contract void if you can't provide__ one?_ He should have asked her for the terms of their contract again.

"True," said Fara. "I hope you're okay with a piggyback ride."

"WHAT!?"

She ignored his outburst. Instead, she dove into what was left of her carriage and started rummaging around.

"Piggyback?" he said, incredulously. _Is she fucking serious?_

"You know," she replied, muffled as she continued with her rummaging. "...on my back."

"I know what it is. You can't piggyback me all the way to Gilia Town." The image rolled into his mind and the absurdity of riding on the back of this young girl was ludicrous. Laughable. Embarrassing!

"...and... why... not?" she argued, staggering her words as she tried to pull what looked like a yellow bag from out of the remains of the carriage. It seemed to be snagged on something. She grunted, pulled harder, using her foot as leverage, and the strap snapped, tossing Fara back onto her butt. And even though Naruto winced when pain lashed across his own butt, he couldn't stop the smile that appeared on his lips. It gave him a brief sense of satisfaction to see her in pain. And of course, he didn't help her up. Petty, sure, but she deserved it. She rubbed her butt with one hand, and the other, pointed further down the road, towards a tall incline. "Gilia is only ten minutes away from here. Just over the hill. Carrying you that far would be easy."

Naruto's jaw dropped, nearly to the ground. Just. Over. The hill? He was already that close? Just another ten minute walk and he would have made it. But then this _wench_, had to show up and ruin everything. Someone up there must really hate him. _Why Kami? Why?_

Fara dove back into the wreckage, this time sucessfully pulling out her large yellow duffel bag. She inspected the torn strap, pulled out a small sewing kit, and in moments, had her bag sewn back together and slung over her shoulder. Then, without even a pause, she turned her back towards Naruto and knelt down. "Kay, get on. Let's go."

Naruto took a step back. "No way," he said. Such a thing was demeaning. She was _smaller_ than him. He turned red with embarrassment just thinking about it.

She wiggled her fingers expectantly. "Hurry up. We're wasting time."

"Forget it," demanded Naruto. "I'll walk."

She turned her head, revealing a single brow raised up in a questioning manner. "You sure? I really don't mind. And it's in the contract and all. But if you don't want to..."

"It's not gonna happen," he finalized, then briskly walked past her. "There's not going to be a problem with that, is there?"

"No but... whatever. Suit yourself," she said. "But it's not every day a pretty girl offers you a ride. If you get other offers in the future. I wouldn't be so quick to turn them down. You look a little 'innocent' so... just a word of advice."

_Calm down, Naruto. Murder is wrong. And with that contract, it would also be suicide. Damn that contract. If only there wasn't some stupid magical contract binding me __to her I would surely just..._ his hands made violent grasping motions.

"Huh? Did you say something?" Fara asked, behind him.

"It's nothing," mumbled Naruto.

"You sure are weird."

It was a good thing she couldn't see the look of pure murder chiselled on his face from behind. A look that could almost kill. Almost. Dammit. Why almost?

**- 5 -**

Gilia Town - Sabertooth Guild Hall

Minerva sighed as she stood outside the massive double doors that led into Master's Jienma's - her father's - study. She was there because the guild's expected visitors had just arrived and she needed to inform him. But seeing her father, for any reason, was always a nervous affair. He would expect perfection from her, especially since she was his daughter. His blood. But right now, anxiety had twisted her features into something less than perfection. Unacceptable.

So, she smoothed out the clothing she wore, a sleek qipao dress decorated with a sabertooth tiger leaping out from a fluttery cherry blossom design. Then, she checked her hair, tightening the braids that fell behind her shoulders, and making sure the two loops on top of her head were perfectly intact.

With her appearance corrected, she took in a deep breath and raised both of her hands to open the doors before her. But then she hesistated. Her hands... they looked so frail. So weak. And those were the very traits that her father despised the most. But then again, she was still only fourteen. Surely her father would understand that she was still just a slip of a girl. Still years away from the woman her mother was. So he wouldn't judge her on such traits alone... would he?

_Of course, he would._ Minerva remembered the great purge that happened only a few months ago like it was just yesterday. Every member of the guild who her father had deemed 'too weak' were rounded up. Every member. It didn't matter if you were a man or a woman; an adult or a child. He didn't discriminate... all that mattered was how strong you were. And in the end, if you weren't strong enough, he called you in. Then he ostracized you from the guild. Not before thoroughly humiliating you, of course.

He forced the women to strip, the children to cry, and the men to various other creative and demeaning things. And all of this was done in front of the rest of the guild. In front of once friends and comrades. In front of secret crushes and loved ones. He didn't want them simply humiliated. No, he wanted them broken then tossed away like garbage.

_"Pathetic,"_ he would say. _"Look at this trash. Not even fit for entertainment."_ Her father was an especially cruel man when it came to the weak. Some had tried to fight back, of course, such was the the nature of a proud guild with proud members. But her father was too powerful. Any dissenters were utterly crushed like ants beneath his feet. Their defiance only seemed to help prove his point. That weakness, even an emotional one, would not be tolerated within the guild. His guild.

So Minerva decided to hide her hands from him for the time being. From a hidden pocket inside of her qipao, she pulled out two long gloves and slid them on. The dark gloves covered her hands and arms all the way past her elbow. When she inspected them again, rather than looking frail and weak as they did before, they were merely feminine and elegant now. Traits that her father couldn't object to. At least not on a girl. She nodded to herself, checked her hair and outfit one last time, then finally opened the heavy doors.

They creaked open, loudly.

Sitting atop of his throne, her father's perpetually glaring eyes turned to her immediately. He was every bit the severe man he appeared to be. Every visible part of his body rippled with muscle, as if weakness itself could not find a place to take hold on him. The parts that weren't visible were hidden behind a yukata that, aside from covering him, did little to hide his intimidating physique. Large spherical beads, rumored to be powerful lacryma, circled around his collar. And a beard, like white fire, engulfed his entire chin. In a word, he looked fearsome.

"Minerva," was all he said, but from his tone, it sounded more along the lines of _'How dare you disturb me, impudent daughter?'_

Inwardly, Minerva gulped, but outwardly, her demeanor was nothing short of stoic and elegant. She bowed gracefully to him, as was expected of her, and her voice rung clear. "Father, our guests, the Rune Knights have arrived to oversee the tournament."

Her father's glare intensified, if that was even possible. "Handle them," he ordered. Translation: _'If they interfere with the tournament, your head will roll, Minerva.'_

Minerva bowed again. "Yes, Father," she replied, then simply left, taking extra care to not show even a hint of weakness in her strides when she walked away.

She dared only to relax when she was out of the room and the doors shut behind her. When they did, she allowed herself a sigh to catch her breath. That had been an unusually long conversation. Usually her father would just wave her off without a word, expecting whatever issue that was brought up to resolve itself. He only took matters into his own hands when the other guilds, the council, or the king was involved.

"Handle them," he said. The Rune Knights were sent from the council to ensure that the tournament followed strict rules and guidelines. This meant no killing. No forbidden magic. No dark mages. No excessive brutality. No this. No that. No fun. All these rules tended to force contenders to hold back their true strengths. Such a thing would not do at all. The entire point of the tournament was to recruit the best of the best, after all, and if some stupid 'rule' caused the best to lose, Sabertooth would end up with a bunch of weaklings as recruits, and her father would be very, very displeased.

So she needed to take care of the Rune Knights, but in a way that they wouldn't be harmed and the council would never suspect. She looked down at her hands again and licked her lips, a plan already formulating in her head.

**- 6 -**

Gilia Town - Entrance Gates

"Alright, we're here," informed the driver of the carriage as it stopped in front of Gilia Town's entrance gates. "Gilia Town, this is where you boys wanted to go, right?" He looked behind himself, towards his passengers, and nearly jumped from sheer terror. "Boys?"

Their names were Sting and Rogue. Just kids. And they were both grotesquely contorted in their seats. It looked like they had just gone through the worst kind of torture imaginable and their faces were pale-blue remants of what they were before, ghastly with only the whites of their eyes showing. Drool (or was that vomit?) leaked out from the corners of their mouths. The driver would have thought them both dead had they not suddenly moaned and crawled their way out through open door of the carriage.

The driver tried to help them... or at least check to see that they weren't zombified or something. "You two... what happened?" he asked, before he jumped again. From the corner of his eyes, he caught a piece of the boys' luggage unnaturally squirming around. It nearly gave him a heart attack. "N-now what is going on?"

The duffel bag burst open and one of the strangest looking... _creatures_... he had ever seen burst out from it. It resembled a cat... that is if a cat could walk on it's hind legs. It had red fur and wore a blue vest and even more absurd than that, it spoke!

"Puuaaaah! It was hot in there!" The red cat looked up to the carriage driver who stood there speechless. "Who are you?" it asked.

The carriage driver backed away slowly. Very slowly. Who knows how such a creature might attack him.

"Oh right, you're the driver," the cat recalled. "I'm Lector, nice to meet you." It bowed. The driver bowed back sheepishly, the motion robotic and automatic. "Where's Sting?" Lector made some descriptive motions. "Blond hair, ten years old, yay-high." The driver pointed to the two almost-corpses in the near distance.

Lector looked to them, smiled, then turned back to the driver and thanked him. "Don't worry about them," said Lector. "Happens all the time when they ride... well... anything, really."

The driver nodded slowly, still backing away.

Lector pulled out a second duffel back and unzipped it, revealing another cat creature, this one green and wearing a pink frog costume. It slept peacefully inside the bag until Lector kicked it. "Frosch, wake up, we're here!"

Frosch flew - _flew? what the hell?_ - out immediately and looked sleepily down from the sky. It rubbed it's eyes once. Then twice. Then it brightened and cheered "We're here!" After a moment, it flew down beside the black-haired kid, Rogue, and flipped him over onto his back, attempting to rescusitate him.

The carriage driver was still frozen in place, his jaw locked open.

The spiky-haired blonde kid, Sting, reached out in agony. "L-lector... I think it's the end for me..."

Lector, grabbed Sting by the collar and repeatedly slapped his face back and forth with a paw. "Sting! Wake up! Get a hold of yourself!" he yelled.

"...tell Rogue that... that I..."

Lector suddenly stopped and he held Sting's head in closer to his furry ear. "Tell Rogue that you what?" he asked, excitedly.

"...Rogue... that I... you know..."

Lector's face turned a bright red that matched his fur. "Tell Rogue that you love him, right?"

Sting's cerulean eyes suddenly gained a fierce clarity, and he grabbed Lector by his tiny vest. "You stupid, cat! Who loves who? Learn to read the damn mood!"

"I - was - reading - the - mood -" Lector gasped out in broken spurts as Sting shook him violently. When Sting stopped for just a second, Lector smiled, blushed, and added: "It was romantic!"

That earned red cat an angry fist straight to the face. Lector flew back and collided into the other cat, Frosch who was attempting to give Rogue mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Rogue's eyes shot open only to find himself with a mouthful of pink cat face. "Mgffffrrrllll!" It took an agonizingly long moment for him to spit out the frog-costumed cat. "F-F-F-Frosch..." Rogue was already up on his feet, a look of pure horror corrupting his face as he touched his own lips. He shook uncontrollably. His crimson eyes in a state of disbelief. "M-my first... h-h-h-how could you..."

The carriage driver finally relaxed a little, his mind so blown by the sheer absurdity of it all that now it seemed completely normal. He ignored the two talking cats to preserve his own sanity, and dutifully removed the rest of Sting's and Rogue's luggage from inside the carriage. "The Inn is straight down the main road," he told Sting. "You said that you were here for the Sabertooth tournament, right? The guild is located on the outskirts closer to the mountains. The Innkeeper can give you better directions."

Sting thanked the driver and grabbed their things, now fully recovered from his terrible vehicle-induced sickness. "Finally, we've made it!" he called out to his friends.

"Sabertooth, here we come," agreed Lector, cheerily. He already forgot about their earlier scuffle.

Next to them, Rogue and Frosch had also mostly recovered.

"S-sorry Rogue," apologized the green cat. "About earlier..."

Rogue was back to his usual stoic look. "Hn... animals don't count." He looked to Sting, a question begging at his eyes. "Right?" Sting shrugged, not knowing what he was talking about. "Right," he answered himself, completely sure.

They all looked to the clock tower that towered up from the centre of the town. Even from the entrance, it was clear. The time was approaching one o'clock.

"We've still got around two hours before registration," noted Sting.

"Let's go eat then," suggested Frosch. "I'm starving."

Rogue nodded. "We'll need some rooms at the Inn, too."

"Whoa, look at those guys," commented Lector. They all turned to see. There were two mages in the distance, practically showing off. One seemed to make the ground shake with every step. The other was shrouded in bright light.

"Looks like we got some serious competition," said Sting.

"And some not-so-serious, too," added Rogue. He pointed to what looked like a blond-haired bum in the distance who was accompanied by some ditzy looking red-haired girl. "Let's hope we get to fight them first."

"Those are mages?" asked Lector "How can you tell?"

"I can feel a bit of magic power coming from both of them, can't you?"

Sting laughed. "Yeah, a bit. If they're even in the competition, we'd wipe the floor with them. And doesn't it look like they guy is walking a bit funny? He probably can't even fight. But whatever, Frosh is right, let's go eat. We can check out the competition later."

They all agreed, grabbed their things, and headed into the Town without a worry in the world.

* * *

**A/N: **Hmm, I'm not entirely happy with this chapter. I wanted to add more... about 10k more words more. I wanted to get the tournament started at least but then this chapter would have been massive and even more delayed so... whatever.

Sorry for the snail-paced updates. Oh, and notice how the the title of the story is _Shadows_ (plural) and not _Shadow_ of the Black Dragon? Yeah, totally intended. It all ties in with Naruto's backstory with the Heartfilias, which is coming along nicely. Food for thought.

Thank you all readers for your continued support of this story. I'm actually kind of glad that it isn't that popular. Less pressure.


	5. Magic Power

**A/N: **Dammit, I keep adding things to this chapter. It just didn't make sense to make it into a new chapter so I added about 2k words to the end of this one. (_New stuff is in section 3_) I also edited my previous chapters a little. Added some sentences here and there. Took others out. Just subtle, mostly contextual changes, really. But now I see why most authors write up entire stories before publishing them. It's just easier that way.

If you're confused about who Fara's sister is (c'mon guys, my hints weren't even that subtle), see the Author's Note at the end of this chapter.

* * *

**Chapter Four - Magic Power**

**- 1 -**

Gilia lay nestled away between a teeming forest, a steep canyon wall, and a massive mountain. Surrounded by nature on all sides, the town looked as if it had at one time struggled to contain itself, then failed. Buildings and roads spilled all over the base of the mountain and encroached ever deeper into forest. With a population closing in on a hundred-thousand, Gilia was more like a small city than just a mere town. The buildings at it's core were huge and numerous, the streets were busy, the roads packed with countless vehicles going about in every direction.

And looming over the entire town, at it's center, was a gigantic clock tower. It struck one o'clock just as Naruto and Fara passed through the entrance gates. The bell chimed loudly, as if heralding their arrival, but was quickly drowned out by Fara's squeal of disapproval.

"It's _one_!?" she cried out in disbelief. "Already!?" She turned to Naruto and gave him a look of consternation. She hesitated a bit before following up with, "I have to go."

"Huh?" Naruto said, baffled. "Go? Where?"

"None of your business," Fara dismissed casually while grabbing hold of his arm.

"What about the tournament?" A small part of Naruto hoped that she would just call the whole thing off but the smarter part of him knew that such a thing would never happen.

Fara pulled at him until he was facing down a wide and busy road that looked to be leading towards the huge mountain in the distance. Pointing, she began to give him instructions. "Go straight down that way. Sabertooth is at the very end of the road. I need you to register for the tournament there. Tell them you're with me, kay? I've already registered under Fara. It's spelled just like how it sounds. F-A-R-A."

Naruto yanked his arm free as she spoke, annoyed.

"...On the way, you'll pass a Noodle Stand. Wait for me there after you're done, kay?" She glowered. "And don't you dare try to run away while I'm gone. I'll know where you are. I'll find you and-"

Naruto waved her off. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. Anything else?" His tone was normal enough but hatred lay not far below it's surface.

She noticed. "You know, you don't have to be so angry all the time."

He couldn't believe it. The anger rose in him so fast that he couldn't control it this time. "It's because of you!" Naruto let go, the words exploded out of him like a burst volcano. "I have shit to do and I'm stuck babysitting some _stupid_ little girl all because _she_ fucking crashed into me and forced me into some _bullshit_ contract."

Fara's eyes flashed, furious. Her mouth made a thin line. "Babysitting?" She jabbed a finger angrily at him. "Little Girl? I'm eighteen! And some of this is _your_ fault too! I never asked for you to taunt me and jump on me from that high up the canyon. I don't even know how we survived. And plus, the deal is good for you too, you know? Sabertooth is one of the best guilds in Fiore. Did you know that they..."

_Eighteen? Impossible! _Naruto was so surprised that he sort of tuned out the latter part of her angry ranting and did a double take on her. Small? Check. Short? Check. Skinny? Check. Small tits? Double check. No matter how he looked at her, he just couldn't see it. She _couldn't_ be older than fourteen. And that was being generous.

Fara caught him staring at her boobs... or lack thereof in this case. Her face turned plainly from shock to rage to disgust while her voice lilted with accusation. "You're despicable."

_Despicable? _Naruto drew a surprised breath. Did she think he was staring because he was some kind of lecher? He was quick to voice his innocence. "No, wait, that's not... I think you've got the wrong idea..." _Wait a minute, _why was he defending himself here?_ He_ was supposed to be the one who was angry, dammit_._ He quickly recovered and shouted at her." Stop acting like a _fucking _brat!"

"You don't believe me, do you?" Fara interjected, out of nowhere.

"Huh?" _What!?_

Her body suddenly became very still. Tense with rage. "Nobody _ever_ believes me," she said coldly. There were waves of anger permeating from her. Then all of a sudden, she was glaring at Naruto with ten times the intensity she had before. "You're just like them. You all look at this-" she said, while gesturing her height. "...this-" She pointed at her face. "...and these-" She actually cupped her own breasts. "And you all just _assume. _Assume that I'm just some _little girl._"

_"_But thats what you look like," Naruto snapped.

"Well I'm _not! _It's not _my_ fault I didn't get the good genes," she continued hysterically. "It all went to stupid Nee-san with her perfect face and perfects boobs and perfect _everything! _While _I'm_ stuck looking all _cute and innocent_. She's only a year older than me! A year! A year can't be _that_ much different. It's not fair! And you know what else isn't fair? The fact that I'm stuck here doing everything _she's_ supposed to be doing just because she forgot about us. Can you believe it? She just leaves and _forgets_ about us. She even _changed_ her last name. She hates us so much that she won't even admit to being a part of the family anymore."

Naruto took a step back. Apparently, he had unknowingly hit some kind of nerve with Fara and now, had no idea how to make her stop. Wait a minute why did she say _us?_ Who was _us?_ She certaintly wasn't talking about him, right?

"I even came to see her in Magnolia but she's all so busy with her dumb mage friends that when I was right in front of her, she doesn't even acknowledge my existance. Do you even know what that's like? It feels... _Ugggh... _It sucks! It's not fair. Not fair at _all_. I bet if Mum and Dad were still alive they'd say I was in the right here. They'd definitely take my side. They would scold her and tell me that... they would say that... umm... that sometimes... that life isn't..." A tear fell down her cheek. She paused, confused as to why her face was suddenly wet, then she wiped it away like it was simply a nuisance and stared back up at Naruto, as if she had just awoken from a bad dream. "Uh... I was ranting, wasn't I?"

Naruto nodded blankly. His anger had evaporated and turned into something more like confused shock. This girl was crazy. And apparently had a lot of problems. Not something he wanted to deal with right now.

"I... whatever," she said, dismissing the issue entirely. "I'm done. Just forget about all that stuff. It has nothing to do with you." Then she scratched her head. "Umm... what were we talking about before?"

Naruto, reluctantly, gave in. He just wanted to get away from her now, even if it would only be temporary. "You said you were going to go somewhere and that I should go register for that tournament and meet up with you later... at some noodle stand."

She eyed him, suspicion emanating from her stare. "R-right," she said, lids narrowing even further. "And... and you better not try anything funny."

He raised his hands in what he hoped to be a placating gesture. "I won't. So... can I go now?"

She beamed a threatening glare at him but it quickly relaxed. She sighed relief. "Okay." Suddenly smiling her perky too-happy smile, she added. "Sorry for leaving you like this. I'll try to be quick."

Naruto averted his eyes and quickly turned to the direction she pointed out to him... towards the road that led to Sabertooth. It was busy, full of people, and he wanted to get lost in it as soon as possible. But just as he was about to take a step...

"Hey wait a sec," she called out. "Um... Naruto... right?"

Naruto tiredly turned back towards her. "What now?"

"I... um... thanks," she said. "For doing this for me. Helping me with the tournament, I mean."

Naruto harumphed. "Not doing it for you."

Her eyes turned downcast. And was that... guilt written on her face? Naruto didn't think she had it in her. "I know. But thanks anyways. You have no idea how much this means to me. I'll treat you to something at the noodle shop, okay?"

Naruto just shook his head and kept walking.

**- 2 -**

Naruto could feel her as he walked. Fara, that is. Even when it was obvious that they were nowhere near each other. It was strange, like an unnatural sixth sense. Like some kind of magnetic pull towards her general direction. No, it wasn't really like that. It was more like he remembered where he had left her, yet that memory was always changing as she continued moving through the town. Something like that. It was very hard to explain. Whatever it was, he knew that Fara was feeling it too and so he didn't bother with thinking up pointless schemes of escape since she'd easily be able to find him. She seemed like the type who would hunt him down to the ends of Fiore.

So he just left the feeling alone and focused on his current errand. The faster he got this tournament over with, the faster he would be free from Fara. Besides, he had other business to do while he was here anyways. It was a good opportunity to meet the master of Sabertooth and get started on sorting out his magic-induced amnesia.

Naruto didn't exactly know what to expect as he travelled towards Sabertooth. He watched the horizon for unique looking buildings or signs, not really having any idea of what a mage guild should look like in the first place. In his head, he imagined a floating castle or maybe some tall ominous looking tower surrounded by crows. Or maybe it was in a cave burrowed deep in the mountain. That would be interesting.

The road suddenly veered a little towards the east, and as Naruto followed it, he found himself passing through what appeared to be a shopping district... for magic. The road was lined with strange shops, on both sides, selling everything from tomes, scrolls, and magical trinkets to various sorts of lacryma crystals and even magic spells. His attention started to waver and he was drawn to each shop with increasing curiosity.

But as soon he passed the last of the shops and turned his attention back to the road, Naruto saw Sabertooth for the first time, rising out like a beacon from the other buildings in the distance. It was definitely no cave. It was no tower either. Castle was close, but calling it such a thing seemed somehow inappropriate.

It was more like a fortress. A massive and imposing looking fortress of stone and spires that looked as if it had somehow been entirely carved out of a mountain. And at the top of it all was how Naruto knew it was Sabertooth in the first place. There, prowling on top of the main building of the complex, was a giant stone tiger with a pair of long knife-like teeth protruding out of it's snarling mouth. It was clearly a stone statue but Naruto swore that it looked alive; like it might leap down and tear him to shreds at the slightest provocation. Shivers leapt down Naruto spine as he continued.

The other buildings on the side of the road eventually gave way to ominous looking red banners imprinted with the Sabertooth insignia. They gave the guild a bit of a military feel. He kept following the path laid out for him until glowing letters shot up from the ground in front of him, stopping him in his tracks. 'Guest Detected' It read, followed by 'Welcome to Sabertooth' then 'Please Visit Information Services.' The letters then merged together, forming an arrow that pointed down towards another stone-paved path before promptly disappearing.

The path led Naruto to a smaller, nondescript building. And through it's doors was a big room with a single wooden desk stacked with ledger books and papers. Sitting at the desk was a young, beautiful, receptionist with curly dark hair, tied into a pony tail, and bright amber eyes. A black Sabertooth insignia was stamped on her collar. Before her were three other people, all in a single line in front of the desk, so Naruto settled at the back of it.

His mind wandered to other things as he waited in line, mostly oblivious to the people in front of him. Racking his brain, he tried to see if there were any other memories lingering in his mind, just waiting to be discovered. He thought back to the night of the incident, back to the mysterious girl he now dubbed 'Pain'.

He tried to remember her piece by piece. Her eyes were... gorgeous. Her face... blurred. Shapely legs, _amazing _rear end. Breasts that were so big they _had_ to be fake, yet so naturally shaped that they were probably real. Dammit, Naruto, keep your mind out of the gutter. What about her hair...? It was long, that he knew for sure. But the color? It was dark... right? Darker. The image he recalled was mostly black and white but her hair was definitely on the darker side of the spectrum.

"Next Please."

And her name. Her name was _killing_ him. There was definitely an 'A' in it somewhere. An 'Ah' sound. Amelia? Anna? Abbie? Wait a minute, did it even start with an 'A'? _Brilliant, Naruto, an 'Ah' sound. That narrows it down so much. _He glared at the marking on his forearm, the one that if he could just somehow 'magically unseal' would give him a scroll with her name. _Damn clone._ _Damn memory loss. Damn... everything!_

"Ahem."

Naruto blinked. The people in the line in front of him had suddenly disappeared. The beautiful receptionist smiled at him. She had perfect full lips. "How can I help you?" she asked. Her smile flickered a bit when she got a closer look at the horrendous state of his outfit, but he was already so used to such reactions that he barely noticed.

"I'm here to sign up for the tournament," said Naruto as he approached, trying not to stare as he got a better view of certain assets so easily displayed behind a low cut shirt.

She nodded and shuffled through the ledger books. "Name?" she asked, without looking up.

"Naruto," he said, doing the same. "Uzumaki."

"Entering alone?"

"Actually I have a partner," he answered, quickly. "Her name is Fara." The woman looked up momentarily to either side of Naruto, then back to him, prompting him to explain. "She's not here right now; she told me that she'd already registered."

The woman's eyes regained their clarity and she nodded, flipping through another set of ledger books until she came across a particular page. "Ah, here we are, Fara Aegis."

_Aegis? _Did Fara ever tell him her last name?

The receptionist tapped the spot in the book where Fara's name was written and a small magical image popped out. A miniature, semi-translucent version of Fara posed floating above the book. "Is this her?"

Naruto stared at it for a bit, heat rising to his cheeks as he did. "Uh...yeah," Naruto confirmed, though reluctantly. _Who does that? _Her image was standing in an ridiculously enthusiastic and embarrasing pose. "That's her, alright."

"Na-ru-to... U-zu-ma-ki..." she said aloud, writing his name into the book. Then she looked up and smiled politely again. "So, I just need to ask you a few questions as part of the registration process."

"Okay..." he agreed hesitantly, hoping that the questions wouldn't be personal. He might not be able to answer them at all with his amnesia.

"First of all, what kind of magic do you use? Be honest, please, and include any dark, lost, or forbidden magic you can use as well. Don't worry, everything you say here is completely confidential. Nothing you tell us will ever leave Sabertooth. We just need to know so we can prepare the arena for your matches accordingly. I should also let you know that any surprises will result in immediate disqualification of both yourself and your partner. And you'll probably have to deal with Master Jienma too..." She shifted uncomfortably in her seat and leaned forward a bit, as if to tell him a secret. "And trust me, you don't want to be on Master Jienma's bad side."

"My magic, huh...?" Naruto scratched the back of his head. "I can walk on walls." he said.

The receptionist's eyes squinted quizzically for a bit before she nodded in understanding. "Ah, so gravity manipulation, then. We haven't had one of those in a while," she said absently, jotting it down into the ledger.

"Uh, no, it's not exactly gravity manipulation," he corrected

She looked up, confused. "Wind Manipulation, then?"

Naruto shook his head. "I just walk up walls."

"Magnetism?"

"Nope."

"Ah, then it's telekinesis..." When Naruto shook his head once again, the receptionist furrowed her pretty, perfectly groomed brows. "Explain."

Since there was nobody else in the room, Naruto decided to show her instead, and walked towards the wall behind the desk. He still had no idea how he did it, but when he put his foot on the wall, he could feel some force holding it in place. Casually, he walked up the entire height of the wall and then onto the ceiling, hanging there while the receptionist blinked a few times.

"How does it work?" she asked.

Naruto shrugged. "Not really sure," he answered, honestly.

"Can you do anything else with it?"

Naruto scratched his head again when he jumped back to the ground. "I haven't really used it all that much but I can probably walk on other things too."

The receptionist smiled politely but the doubt was already clear in her eyes. "What a... umm... _fascinating_ ability." So fascinating that she didn't even bother putting it into the books. "So... can you do anything else... or...?" She twirled a a pen through the air.

"I heal really fast," Naruto recalled. "And my body is pretty tough."

The receptionist did seemed appreciative of Naruto's tight physique as her eyes wandered all over him. But then she sighed. "Look. Naruto, is it? You're cute, but I don't think you quite know what you're getting yourself into here.

He didn't know what to make of the _'You're cute' _comment, but he opened his mouth to debate the rest of it. She stopped him with a raised hand.

"Let me finish. You'll be facing mages who can control the very elements. Fire, Earth, Water, Air... they'll literally throw those things at you. Some can even summon mythical monsters. You'll be dealing with _real_ magic there. Dangerous magic. Just look to your partner. It says here that she can requip weapons and throw them telekinetically. She even has limited flight. But _your _magic... walking up walls? And a bit of healing? They're um... well... not really suited for this tournament." Then she added quickly. "I'm not saying they're bad exactly, just that they'd be much more useful elsewhere."

Naruto could tell that she was just trying to be polite with him. And now that he thought about it, his magic powers _were_ pretty lame. But...

"Oh yea," Naruto remembered. "I'm pretty strong too."

"Oh?" The receptionist regained a bit of her interest at that. "Ethernano enhanced strength? How strong are you?"

"Well, uh..."

"Wait here," she said, disappearing into a door at the very back of the room. When she re-emerged, she seemed to be struggling as she carried three huge maces and laid each one, handle sticking up, at Naruto's feet. Looks like he needed to break something to prove his strength.

"So," said the receptionist. She collapsed back into her desk, seemingly out of breath. "Start with that one." She pointed at the one with the green handle. "Just lift it."

"Thats it?" asked Naruto, surprised. It seemed too easy.

"Thats it," she confirmed.

Naruto grasped the green handle with one hand, thinking it to be a piece of cake. Then he tried to lift it. It wouldn't budge. At all.

"Both hands please," commented the receptionist. "Don't want you to hurt yourself." Naruto, just then, remembered that this woman had all three of them in her arms when she brought them out. So with his pride on the line, he gripped the green handle and lifted, as hard as he could, with both arms. The thing must of weighed a ton. He managed to lift it, but barely. Every second he held onto it was a second he felt like he might tip over.

"Good, you can drop it now," said the receptionist.

He did so, gladly, relief plain on his face. The mace shook the floor of the entire building when he dropped it too. He looked at the other two maces, one with a yellow handle and the other with a red handle. The next test probably involved lifting two of them at the same time. He figured he had a good chance at it. Maybe.

"Good. Now, lift the one with the yellow handle, please."

"Just the yellow one?" asked Naruto, confused.

"Yes," she smiled. "It's about five times the weight of the green one."

_Five times!? _Naruto sunk completely. He tried to do it, anyways. His pride wouldn't accept anything less. But, as expected, he failed miserably. He couldn't even get the thing to budge and stared at it afterwards, completely dejected.

The receptionist laughed reassuringly at him. "Don't feel bad," she commented. "You _are_ pretty strong, you know? Most people can't even lift the green one. It weighs about five tons, by the way. The yellow one is around twenty-five tons and the red one is a hundred tons I think. They're all mine. I use them on some of my missions." She smiled.

Naruto counted himself lucky that she wouldn't be in the tournament. How would you even fight someone with such monstrous strength?

The receptionist scribbled something down into the ledgers then reached in a drawer and pulled out a round crystal, placing it on top of the desk before Naruto. It looked like something was written inside of it and when Naruto took a closer look, he saw numbers. It read: '1075'.

"This is a portable version of a Magic Power Finder," she said, answering the question before he even asked it. "It's also extremely expensive, so please, be careful with it. It'll show you exactly how much magic power you have."

"What do I need to do?"

"Just pick it up and hold onto it for a bit. You don't need to do anything else. It'll draw out a bit of your magic power by itself."

Naruto did as he was told and enclosed it onto the palm of his hand. The ball of crystal was extremely cold to the touch, like holding onto a ball of ice or something.

"Okay, that's enough," she said after a few seconds and Naruto gladly placed it back on the desk. 1300 it read... What did _that_ mean? Was that good? Bad? But wait, why was the number inside of it still changing.

"Is it supposed to do that?" he asked, watching the numbers. They were rising, he noticed. Now it was at 3045.

"Um..." the receptionist tried to pick it up but when her hand got close, some kind of energy lashed out at her and she yelped and jolted her hand away. "No," she shouted. "Definitely not!" She shot up to her feet and glared momentarily at Naruto. "What did you do?" she demanded. It was at 5375 now, and still going up.

"N-Nothing," insisted Naruto. "I just did what you told me to do." 6650

"Take it again," she told Naruto. "Maybe it'll stop." 7240

He did. Nothing lashed out at him like it did to the receptionist. 8590. Still going up.

"Well?" asked the receptionist. She was ducked low behind her desk, peeking out with only her eyes. "Did it stop? What does it say?"

Naruto shook his head. 9120. "Still going up," he informed her. "It's over nine-thousa-"

"THROW IT!" she interrupted, voice hoarse with fear.

"Huh? But-"

"NOW!" she screamed.

Judging from how she reacted, Naruto threw it out the open door of the room. It exploded just as it landed outside and Naruto instinctively took cover behind the desk, beside the receptionist. He saw bright flashes of multi-colored light and the entire buildling seemed to shake violently in it's foundations for a few seconds.

When it finally settled down, the receptionist was the first to get up. "Well," she said, "That's never happened before. Just who are you?"

Naruto ignored the question since he couldn't really give her any answer besides his own name. Instead, he looked around and surveyed the resulting destruction. It wasn't that bad, actually. The desk was fine, and so was the room, for the most part. The doorway was now about triple it's original size... and there was no more door, but other than that. "So..." asked Naruto, "Uh... we don't have to try that again, do we?"

"She glared down at him. "Absolutely not! I _do_ have some good news, though," she informed him as she straightened out her hair and clothing. Naruto hadn't the slightest idea why. She somehow looked even more beautiful when she was slightly disheveled. "You're approved for a special bracket of the tournament."

"Uh... yay?" asked Naruto, unsure. "What does that mean?"

"It means..." she continued. "That if you make it into the guild, you'll automatically be promoted to S-class and you'll receive all the benefits that it brings." Naruto noticed that her tone wasn't very congratulatory, though. In fact, she seemed downright sorry for him.

"Uh... is there a catch?"

"Just one," she confirmed, eyeing the place where the round Magic Power Finder lacryma crystal originally sat. "If you make it in, five-hundred and..." her eyes peered over at the blown up entranceway too. "...make that six-hundred-and-ninety-thousand Jewels will be deducted from your pay. If you don't make it, you'll soon have several 'persuasive' debtors making sure that you pay up."

_Eh?_

"Congratulations and good luck, Mister I-Can-Walk-On-Walls. I think you'll need it."

**- 3 -**

Naruto must have spent a good half hour with the Sabertooth receptionist. A half hour that wasn't particularly productive, either. In fact, due to the sudden acquisition of his new six-hundred-and-ninety-thousand Jewel debt, it was more of the opposite. Mounds of paperwork had to be filled out and initialed and signed, and then stamped again by the receptionist. And because of his amnesia, it felt more like an intense mind-rattling test than just mere paperwork.

He mostly fabricated everything. Home town? Why, Magnolia Town of course, the name of the town that his clone had mentioned before. Address? Umm... 100 Strawberry Street? Sure, why not. He had made it up completely though he didn't know why a strawberry of all things popped into his head at that exact moment. Birth date? July 1st sounded pretty good to him.

There were dozens of other questions and by the time he was finished with them all, he was sweating profusely and was thoroughly, mentally exhausted. Having to lie about everything was no joke.

"So then, Naruto Uzumaki. You're a thirty-five year-old ramen cook who lives in Magnolia Town. You're also married... to a girl named Lucy? And you have two children, named Layla and the other... um... Grandpa Belo?" The receptionist squinted hard. "Am I reading that right?"

"J-just Belo," Naruto corrected quickly. "Belo Uzumaki." He should've went with Jude. In any case, Fara was right about one thing, he was a horrible liar. "Grandpa is just a... umm... nickname."

"Mmhmm..." The receptionist flipped through all of his paperwork again before she looked up and folded her hands on top of her desk. She then threw on a perfectly polite smile as if she were trying to mask the obviously leery look in her eyes. "This is all bullshit, isn't it?"

_Shit. Busted. _And so fast, too. Naruto shook his head vehemently. "Huh? No way. It's all true. I swear!"

The receptionist rolled her eyes. "Right, they all say that. Why should I believe you?"

Naruto gave her the most sympathetic look he could muster and tried to come up with something to defend himself with. "It's because..." Dammit, should he just mention his amnesia? For some reason, he felt like he shouldn't. At least not now. So maybe change the subject instead? "...because you're..." Wait, why did he change the subject to her? What was he supposed to say now? Because she's what? _C'mon, think Naruto._ Because she's what? "...Pretty?" _Oh crap._ He didn't actually say that, did he?

He looked to the receptionist like a startled animal, and his expression took a turn for the worse when he saw the hard look she was returning to him. _'Because she was pretty?'_ What the hell was he thinking? So he tried to smile, to pass it off as a lame joke despite how horrified he actually was. Their eyes met for what seemed like a millenia or two and then she sputtered into hard laughter.

"Well, you're just full of surprises," she said between bouts of laughter. "Bold. I like that. Don't worry, I was just giving you a hard time. Everyone lies on these things. They're more of a formality than anything else. But here, I _do_ need you to touch these, please." She pulled out what looked like a small golden compass and placed it on top of the desk towards Naruto. He eyed it, suspicious. "Don't worry, it's not going to explode or anything," she said, though her eyes didn't look too convincing of that statement. "Well, probably not."

"What is it for?" he asked.

"Just so we can find you should you decide to run away or hide."

Naruto hesitated.

"I'm not saying that you will," she added quickly. "It's just standard procedure. A precaution, really. But I'm afraid it's a manditory precaution." She waved her hand to the compass. "The master would be furious if I didn't do it."

Naruto looked from the smiling receptionist to the compass and then towards the door - err - hole in the wall of the room. "What's to stop me from taking off right now?" he asked, daringly.

The receptionist's face suddenly turned dead serious and she gave a very intentional glance to the three maces she had moved to the side of her chair. "You're free to try, if you'd like."

Naruto looked at her, the way she seemed so relaxed as she smiled and stared him dead in the eye. The way she was so composed, as if this were all just typical business. "Alright, fine," he relented. He reached out and touched the compass with two fingers. At first, he felt nothing, then after several seconds, there was a sudden draining sensation throughout his entire body for just an instant.

"Thank you for being civil," said the receptionist as she took the compass out from under Naruto's fingers. He watched it as it disappeared behind the desk again. "So... that would be everything I needed from you. Do you have any questions for me?"

Naruto sighed. He, in fact, _did_ have questions. Several. And so he started asking them, one by one, pleasantly surprised when he got prompt, straight-forward answers in return. He learned a lot from them.

His first match in the official Sabertooth entrance tournament was scheduled for the afternoon of December 1st, X784. Which was tomorrow, apparently. This was significant information for Naruto who, up until now, had no idea what the date was.

He also happened to learn that the Sabertooth receptionist's name was Rhea; that she was an A-class mage, who only took up reception duties for the tournament because the pay was so good. She was also currently single because she had accidentally 'broken' her last boyfriend. Naruto couldn't tell if she meant that literally or not, nor had any idea why she even mentioned it in the first place so he ignored it with an awkward smile and a nod.

He asked about his magic power and it somewhat opened his eyes. In the ledger books, he was marked as having 9999 magic power but both Naruto and Rhea knew that his magic power was definitely higher than that. Apparently, this put his magic power on par with those of the Ten Wizard Saints. It was impressive, according to Rhea. But Naruto had no idea what a Wizard Saint even was and he didn't feel particularly inclined to ask her about it. It did bring up an obvious point, though. What the hell was he supposed to do with all his magic power?

"So you really can't do anything but walk on walls?" commented Rhea. "If so, you're going to be in for a world of hurt."

Naruto thought about it for a long moment. If he actually did have all that power, it was bound to show up in one way or another. In fact, there was a good chance they would appear during the tournament itself. "Hey," he started.

Rhea looked to him expectantly.

"I don't really know the full extent of my powers yet," admitted Naruto, truthfully. "And it would suck if I got disqualified if, you know, they decide to just show up during the tournament so... can we do anything about that?"

Rhea's eyes twinkled. "Oooh, a mysterious one, are you? I like that." She nodded and went through the paperwork again. "In that case, I'll just mark you under the bubble category. There should be no problems then."

"Bubble category?"

Rhea nodded. "Like I said before. We only want to know what your powers are so that we can prepare the arena. We don't want unfortunate incidents where the competitors destroy the arena or accidentally hurt the audience. The bubble category just means that your matches will all take place in a magical, impregnable barrier. A bubble, so to speak. We don't like using bubbles because it makes it a lot harder to see the fight. Also, you can't really hear anything from the outside, either, so it sort of hurts the entertainment value. People pay good money to watch the tournament. It would be bad if they're disappointed. But sometimes, we don't have a choice."

"You make money off these fights?" asked Naruto, amazed.

"Well, of course," she said, with a slightly puzzled look. "Recruiting stronger members is only one point of the tournament. The other is to raise money. Mage guilds are technically businesses too, after all."

Naruto didn't argue with it any further and, in the end, agreed to the bubble thing.

He asked a few more questions after that, these ones pertaining to Master Jienma. The most important thing he learned was that gaining an audience with Master Jienma would be a lot harder than he thought. The master of Sabertooth was apparently completely unapproachable to outsiders. So to see him, Naruto would either have to A) get accepted into the guild first or B) talk to his daughter, Minerva, after the conclusion of the tournament. He asked if there was a way to see Minerva before the tournament started but Rhea told him that Minerva would be far too busy organizing it to give him the time of day.

As a consolation, Rhea agreed to introduce him if he was still in one piece, tomorrow, after his first day of matches. With nothing to lose and no other leads, Naruto, again, agreed, and they made arrangements for the meeting to take place at some cafe. He tucked the address away into the pocket of his tattered cloak.

Finally out of questions, Naruto took his leave and walked out just as a couple of cocky looking boys with their dressed up (eh?) pet cats entered through the hole in the wall. He squinted as they passed. They looked younger than Fara and he hoped he wouldn't have to face them at any point in the tournament. Imagine, beating up a pair of little kids.

He shook his head in shame as he made his way to the noodle shop to rendevous with Fara.

* * *

**A/N:** Sorry, had to throw that DBZ meme in there. Anyways, I decided to save the Minerva part for the next chapter. Can't believe it's already past 25k words. My writing style is sure long-winded.

Anyways...

Fara is Erza's little sister. I think the clues I gave were more than enough. I'm slowly setting up Naruto's future relationship with Erza by using Fara, pretty much.

Also, 'Pain' is _not_ Lucy. Lucy plays an important role though so I might have her get together with Naruto later on in the story. I should also tell you that this story eventually merges with canon and will do so at Tenrou Island before the time skip. This means that the entire first arc of this story is an original one dealing with Naruto and Sabertooth.

And yes, I understand that Naruto's ideals and Sabertooth's clash. Thats pretty much the basis for the first arc.


	6. A Way Out

**A/N:** Holy crap I haven't updated in like _a thousand years!_ In fact, I had to re-read my entire story to even remember where I left off. Gah.

My plan was (and still is) to wait and see how the manga is going to handle Minerva's character. Until she's fleshed out in canon a little more, I'm kind of apprehensive moving forward with this story. I need to know what her real motivations are in the manga.

Anyways, thats why this entire chapter is a set-up/filler chapter with liiterally no action at all. I know, boring right? In fact, why are you even still reading this niche story? It barely follows any of the popular Naruto/Fairy Tail tropes.

Bah, whatever. Ranting done. Prepare to be disappointed by this chapter.

(Just fyi, I think it's a decent chapter, but only I know the significance behind it because I'm the author and I know exactly what happens to make it significant. 'Tis the Author's curse.)

**Important Notice: **In case you didn't notice before, I recently (about a week ago) added another section to the end of my previous chapter. So if you're still following this story you should probably read it before you read this chapter. It's like 2k words and is fairly important to the plot.

* * *

**Chapter Five - A Way Out**

**- 1 -**

As Naruto went through the familiar section of magic shops that he passed by on his way to Sabertooth, one of the signs caught his eye. It read:

Eric MG Enchantments

It was the word 'Enchantment' that took hold of his attention and refused to let go. It was the same word that Fara had mentioned when their so-called 'contract' was forced upon him. So if their contract really was some kind of enchantment, maybe someone in that shop knew a way to remove it? It couldn't hurt to try. So with hopeful spirits, Naruto approached.

There was an 'open' sign hanging on the door of the shop, yet for whatever reason, the door was locked. Strange. He tried knocking but nobody answered. Jiggling the door knob accomplished nothing as well so he resorted to putting his face up against the shop's window and peered in. There were lines upon lines of shelves but it didn't look like anybody was inside. Maybe they were out for lunch or something? He could always come back later. He had just decided to leave when...

"Ah, a customer?" came a distraught voice from behind him. "Sorry, please wait a moment, I'll open up right away!"

Naruto turned but was not at all prepared for what he saw. She was a pretty blue-haired lady, hugging some books close to her chest, with an apologetic smile in her hazel eyes. And as she worked on unlocking the door to the shop, Naruto stared, dumbstruck; not because she was all that remarkable, but because her face and profile had struck him with such a strong sense of resemblance that he couldn't help it. He was all but certain that he knew her from somewhere. Or maybe it was just his messed up memories playing tricks on him. Either way, she didn't look like she knew him at all.

The lady was perhaps in her mid thirties, fair-complexioned with long, slightly wavy, azure-hair braided at her back. But, wait a minute, she was also wearing some decidedly manly clothes: gray trousers, a tucked-in white dress shirt, and a gray vest over-top. Then it all clicked. Maybe she was actually a guy? Naruto scanned his limited memories for any effeminate looking guys he might know with long blue hair but nobody seemed to be turning up.

"Well, are you coming in?" asked the shopkeeper with a puzzled look. She - or he - was holding the door open, waiting for Naruto to enter.

Naruto snapped out of his thoughts and his eyes bounced from the shopkeeper's clothes to the store's sign and then back again. "Are you Eric?" he asked, skeptically.

The shopkeeper gave him a look. The kind of look that frightened children and made grizzled men think twice about the things they were saying. Naruto was apparently _very _mistaken. "I'll forgive you for that one," she said as she strode into the shop. "Eric's my husband. My name is Irene. Are you coming in? Or not?"

_Oops. _"Sorry," muttered Naruto, as he followed her inside, face reddening with guilt at his mistake.

Irene whispered something and the lights in the shop suddenly flickered on all at once. The bright lights revealed books. Lots and lots of books. They were on the shelves, against the walls, stacked in neat piles on the floor. It seemed more like a library than a shop. But Irene led him further, past the shelves, past the books, and when they finally stopped, Naruto found himself in section of glass cabinets filled with assorted jewelry, trinkets, and even some small knives and daggers.

"Here we are," she said. "Are you looking for anything in particular?"

Naruto quickly scanned the cabinets, searching specifically for sheets of vellum or even glowing parchments of paper or anything even remotely similar to what Fara had used on him for the contract. He saw nothing of the sort. "You _do_ sell enchantments, right?" he asked.

"Yes," she answered, slightly puzzled. "All sorts."

"Uh... well, I need to know about a certain kind of enchantment but I'm not sure what it's called and I don't see anything like it here."

Irene moved behind one of the counters and dropped her books onto it. Then she put on a thoughtful look. "Would you mind describing it to me, then?"

Naruto nodded and took his time to explain the contract to her as best he could. He mentioned Fara, the vellum with glowing runes on it, and the blood, but left out the fact that he was forced into it. When he finished, Irene giggled softly into the palm of her hand.

"Congratulations, it sounds like you've just been married," she said.

_Eh?_ Naruto was too shocked to say anything but the gaping look on his face must have gave him away.

"You... didn't know?" she asked, surprised.

Naruto quickly shook his head, eyes wide, mouth even wider.

"Really," Irene sighed. "You young people are so irresponsible nowadays."

"Wait... but... married?" sputtered Naruto, finally. "That can't be right. I mean... it's nothing like... you're wrong! You've gotta be..."

"If what you've told me is right, then there's no mistake. It's definitely a magical marriage contract. Usually, such a thing is only done in Caelum, but I suppose it's been gaining popularity here in Fiore too. Basically how it works is when a man wishes to marry a woman, he obtains a special contract-type enchantment that binds two lacryma rings together. When worn, the bearer of the rings are linked to each other. They share some physical feelings, both pain and pleasure, along with simple thoughts. They say it makes the bonds of marriage even stronger."

_Rings? What rings? _"But wait," refuted Naruto. "My enchantment didn't have any rings."

"Indeed," confirmed Irene. "Lacryma rings are very expensive, after all. Even the most modest pair of rings would cost you over a million Jewels each so they were only reserved for the wealthy or privileged. Poor lovers resorted to a slightly more crude ritual. One that involved... well..."

It suddenly made sense. "Blood..." finished Naruto for her. So Fara had magically married him to her? _Wow. How could she?_

Irene nodded in confirmation. "However, without lacryma rings to amplify the enchantment, the magical bond is severely weakened. A couple bonded by blood can't really share thoughts. And I believe, physically, they would only share pain. Ridiculous, if you ask me. Why only share the pain?" She shrugged to herself and caught the sickly look on Naruto's face. "Umm, is there something wrong?"

"I... is there a way to remove the enchantment?"

Irene put a finger to her chin. "Certainly. There is almost always a divorce clause written in runes somewhere on the enchanted contract. Most of the time, it's something simple, such as writing a certain word on the palm of your hands. Other times, it'll be the same clause that is used to prevent cheating. For example, some couples use a clause that terminates a contract if you get... well... intimate... with someone else." A blush crept onto her face when she said it.

Naruto remembered the so-called 'divorce clause' Fara had given him. She had to get stamped with the Sabertooth insignia.

"Is that the only way?"

"Well, there is _one_ other way..." she grimaced. "I don't recommend it, though. It's somewhat... dangerous."

"What is it?" Naruto urged.

Irene turned reluctant. "You would have to overload the enchantment..." When Naruto returned a blank look, she explained further. "Basically, you would have to hurt each other so much that the magic gets overloaded and collapses by itself. But the combined pain required for such a thing... I couldn't wish it on my worst enemies. It would be like torture. No. Worse. The stories I hear..." She gave Naruto a reproachful look and shook her head. "No, it isn't possible," she said, matter of factly. "Don't even think about it."

Outwardly, Naruto agreed with her but inside, his thoughts were a storm. So there _was_ a way to get rid of Fara. It would just hurt like hell. It had to hurt even more than that time Fara kicked him in the balls. And that _really_ fucking hurt. But then again, he also had super-fast healing so if he just... maybe... jumped off the top of the canyon again... would that work? What about Fara? She probably deserved the pain for all that she put him through... but would too much pain kill her? He didn't want to go _that_ far. It seemed he had a lot to think about right now.

"You really didn't know about any of this?" said Irene to break the sudden lull.

Naruto slowly shook his head, still in thought.

Irene moved to one of the bookshelves in her store and when she returned, handed Naruto a thin book. "Here, you should read this, it'll tell you everything you need to know about that marriage enchantment. There might even be another way to get out of that enchantment that I overlooked."

"Huh... are you sure? Thanks, Lady," said Naruto, sincerely. She sure was a nice. But when he tried to take the book from her...

"That'll be twenty-thousand Jewels, please."

_Eh?_ Guess he should have expected that. And wasn't that kind of expensive for such a little book? "But... I don't have any..." started Naruto, guilty. That was when Irene subtly gestured towards a small bulge in Naruto's tattered cloak, one that he himself had never noticed before. So he took a look and lo-and-behold, found a hidden pocket with a wallet in it. A wallet that was thick with bills. He had over three-hundred thousand Jewels.

Simultaneously amazed and guilty of the fact, he paid for the book.

"Thank you for your business," she said, counting the bills a little over-enthusiastically. "Feel free to come back any time."

Naruto grimaced. Why did he feel like he just got ripped off? That aside, he thanked Irene for the book and her immensely useful information. She still seemed maddenly familiar but he put that thought aside and headed out of the shop a little lighter on his feet, like a bit of the weight had been hoisted off his shoulders. Not everything was coming together yet but at least he had the pieces gathered and had a decent idea of what he needed to do next. He even had some resources now: a connection in the form of that receptionist, Rhea, and a hefty amount of money in his wallet. But most importantly, he finally had a way out of the contract with Fara. There was no way he'd let her take advantage of him again.

**- 2 -**

Lucy Heartfilia tiredly blew the strands of blonde hair that had fallen across her eyes. She had just finished searching everywhere for him in the middle of... wherever this was. But he wasn't in the dilapidated looking mansion. Nor was he in the practically destroyed courtyard full of flowers. But she swore she had sensed his presence not even a full day ago. The massive spike of dark energy she had felt, even hundreds of miles away, was definitely his. In fact, she could still sense remnants of his familiar, comforting, power amidst the shattered stone and upturned earth. But he wasn't there. At least, not anymore. And she would know. Because of the power they shared, they could practically sense each other no matter where they were. But now, it was like he had vanished completely and it had Lucy frightened and worried all at once.

All the dried spattered blood and pieces of torn orange cloth wasn't helping her anxiety either.

"Naruto...?" she thought aloud. "What were you doing out here? Where are you?"

Before he disappeared, Naruto had told her that he was going out for a short B-rank mission to make some quick jewels by himself. '_Liar,_' Lucy thought to herself. She should've realized how suspicious he sounded then.

The earth rattled beneath Lucy's feet and she looked down. The ground erupted a few feet away and from the resulting hole emerged a beautiful pink-haired woman wearing a maid outfit. Virgo.

"Did you find anything?" asked Lucy.

Virgo bowed her head slightly. "My apologies, Hime-sama, but he doesn't appear to be here. But I _did_ find these..." She raised her hands out of the hole and produced an empty bowl and a waterskin. Then she wrinkled her nose a little. "Ramen," she said. "Still somewhat fresh. And there were footsteps leading out from where these were laid. It looks like they're headed towards the nearby town, Gilia."

Lucy brightened immediately at that. "Good work, Virgo," she praised.

Virgo, though, looked a little troubled. "Should I not be punished for failing to find Naruto-sama?" she asked, sounding strangely hopeful.

Lucy laughed. "Tell you what. When we find Naruto, I'll make sure to _punish_ the both of you. How does that sound?"

An eager smile clearly tugged at one corner of Virgo's mouth despite her trying to hide it. "As you wish, Hime-sama." In moments, Virgo disappeared in a flash of magic power, causing the chain of keys to rattle at Lucy's side. Each key was pitch black, tainted by the dark magic she now wields alongside her celestial spirit summoning.

_'Naruto, you jerk. You're gonna have a lot of explaining to do when I find you,'_ thought Lucy as she headed down the road towards Gilia.

* * *

**A/N: **At first, I was gonna throw Lucy in next chapter. But I figured now was a good time to introduce her.

Anyways, I should tell you this now, but I'm one of those writers who absolutely has to plan everything out meticulously in advance before I write. The upside is that it makes it easier to foreshadow and hint at things in my story. The downside is that updates take forever for me and sometimes you get slow chapters like this one where there's seemingly no point. But later on, you'll remember this chapter and be like 'oh... so thats why he did such and such,' or 'hah, I sort of saw that one coming.'

I hate stories where stuff seems to happen for no reason at all so I tend to do the opposite.

You may also notice that I use a lot of OCs. The reason is that this is a Naruto/Sabertooth story and in the manga (I don't watch the anime) you only know like six or seven actual characters in Sabertooth. So I'm forced to do a bit of world-building to make it work. I try to throw in canon characters when I can... because hey, the entire point of a crossover is to see characters from one universe interact with characters from another. But sometimes, you can't, and so I use OCs.

Till next time.

PS - Cookies to you if you can figure out which Fairy Tail character the shopkeeper, Irene, is related to from the hints I gave. Shouldn't be that hard, tbh.


	7. Confrontation

**A/N: **You know what? Fuck it. I'm gonna end up adding entire sections to this chapter later. Like it or not, it's how I write best. So sorry guys, I tried writing everything in one go. But it's just not working out. If that means less reviews, then so be it.

It's not you, it's me.

I swear.

* * *

**Chapter Six - Confrontation**

**- 1 -**

Naruto wasn't at the gates when Lucy finally made it to Gilia. It was this simple fact that sullied her mood even further than it already was. She was so delirious with annoyance that she even began complaining to a completely random stranger who had the _gall_ to be within arm's reach.

She grabbed the stranger, a young boy from the looks of it, by his collar and glared menacingly at him. "Why couldn't that idiot just wait here for me to find him? Huh? _Jerk," _she growled, shaking the poor kid mercilessly.

The hapless boy ran away as soon as she released him, shouting random profanities at Lucy when he figured he was at a safe enough distance. Lucy ignored him and worked on calming herself.

It wouldn't have been so bad if the journey to Gilia Town itself hadn't been pure agony. But pure agony it was. Maybe even worse. It was bright and sunny outside, but mostly, _unbearably_ _hot_. And the walk itself was so long that her legs felt all wobbly by the end of it. To add insult to injury, not even _one_ person bothered to stop and offer her a ride as they passed. Even when she undid a button (or three) on her shirt to let her bosom - err - _charm,_ show a little.

Realization struck her and Lucy stared at her own chest, depressed. Maybe she was starting to lose her womanly allure? She so wanted cry right now. But before she could grab another random stranger to complain to, she felt a tiny glow of energy pulsating from somewhere in the town. Of course, being in a town full of mages, there were similar glows of pulsating energy practically everywhere, but this one was different. It felt dark and malicious, yet warm and comforting all the same, resonating with the emanations echoing from her own chest.

There was no doubt about it after that. It was definitely, _'Naruto!'_

All the fatigue in her body left her at that moment. She spun around to face the road where the energy was coming from and practically sprinted towards it. Naruto wasn't very far. Maybe nine or ten blocks away. That was nothing if you considered that she had come all the way from Magnolia to find him. Nothing at all. So she weaved through the crowd, jostling some people along the way.

Lucy found him. Easily. At first, it was his hair that she saw. Bright, spiky, and cheerful, each strand as yellow as the afternoon sun. Then, she caught a glimpse of his face, and it melted away all of her doubts, replacing them with a hundred thoughts all at once. It was really Naruto. He was there. He's okay. He looked the same as ever.

Lucy stopped running. Stopped moving completely. And before Naruto could notice her, she darted behind some of the crowds of people, walking with them, but keeping Naruto always in her sight. She wasn't sure, herself, why she was so nervous, but she straightened out her hair and fiddled with her blue skirt. Her white and blue sleeveless shirt heaved in and out, in rhythm with her heavy breathing as she caught her breath. And when she calmed a little, the questions started coming to her in droves. How was he hiding his power so well? Why was he hiding it in the first place? What was he doing out here, anyways? Why had he lied to her? Why... were his clothes such a mess? It looked like had just gotten out of a fight.

Lucy pulled at her hair. Why was she fretting like this anyways? This was so unlike her. So she made up her mind then and just waltzed towards Naruto. _Jerk._ Making her feel like this. He'll get whats coming to him. And then some.

She saw Naruto's eyes catch her own and she smirked, darkly. And just when she was about to give him hell... his eyes just dart away from her. No. It wasn't even that. It was like he had simply glossed over her. Like he didn't know her at all.

And the anger that was already bellowing inside her _exploded._

She stomped towards him, shoving people out of her way, a mission in her strides.

Soon, there was nothing left between her and Naruto but the dark thoughts emanating from her stare. He couldn't ignore her now. Not if he wanted to live through the day. She stood there, a statue of ill omen, just daring him to...

Their shoulders bumped slightly when Naruto walked passed her. He had ignored her. Completely.

Not _even._ It was like she didn't exist or something.

_'How... how _could_ he?' _ Lucy's lips quivered. Her face became demonic. She turned around and grabbed him, firmly, by the shoulder. When their eyes met a second time, she glared at him. A furious glare. Like she wanted to scratch his face off with it.

"Huh?" Naruto said to her. His brows went up, questioningly. Then his eyes struck understanding. Lucy's heart skipped a beat. But then he said: "Ah, sorry for bumping into you, Miss. Kinda got lost in this book." He raised his hand and showed her, all friendly-like. The title read: Marriage Enchantments - A Guide. Her gaze travelled back to his eyes, and that was when he bowed apologetically to her and kept walking past. That was it.

'_That was it?_'She had come all the way to this far away town for _that? _Lucy wanted to cry again. What the hell was that about? She wanted to say something but, suddenly, she was speechless. At first, she was going to call him out on his lies or his bluffing or whatever it was. But then, she saw his eyes. Lucy could always tell when Naruto lied. He was never really good at it. But that time, his eyes were crystal clear. No hesitation. No funny movements. They looked straight at her and asked: 'Who the heck are you?'

Lucy turned around and stared at Naruto's back as he disappeared into the crowd again. '_What? The? Fuck?'_

**- 2 -**

_'That blonde girl was weird,'_ mused Naruto to himself as he walked. She had looked kind of scary too, like she was going to kill him or something. _'Psh, what was _her_ problem?'_ It was just a little bump. _'Ah, whatever.'_

Book in hand, Naruto continued up the road, back in the direction of the entrance gates, until he finally found his destination.

He had no idea how he missed it the first time - _no_ - how he missed it _at all_. Was he so blindly aggravated at Fara that he somehow failed to notice that heaven itself had relocated to Earth Land and renamed itself 'The Noodle Stand'?

Naruto stared, wide-eyed and slack-jawed, at the open, pearly gates, of the establishment. In an arch, above the gates, were golden glowing letters that spelled out 'The Noodle Stand'. A girl, nay, wingless _angel_ smiled dazzingly at him, as if beckoning him to come inside. And the _smell._ Oh Kami, the cornucopia of aroma that assaulted his senses and set his mouth watering in excitement...

Who was _he,_ a mere mortal, to say no to such a divine welcome? The fact that this was undoubtedly the place where he was to meet up with Fara was just a mere footnote in his decision-making process. Forget Fara. Forget the tournament. Forget his memories (oh wait =P). Because now, there was only one thing on his mind...

_Ramen._

"Hey, wait just a minute!" said the greeting girl just as he was about to pass through the gates. She pointed out the rags Naruto was wearing and grimaced. "We don't _do_ bums," she told him.

Naruto flashed a cocky smile, then his wallet, fat with Jewels.

It was scary how quickly the girl changed her tune. All of a sudden, she became somehow, predatorial? She was around his age, maybe a little older, and gorgeous. And her clothes... It would be a mistake to call what she was wearing a kimono. For one thing, it was much shorter, coming down to about her upper thigh, threatening to unveil the secret garment underneath if she so much as tilted forward a little. And for another, it seemed as if her ample cleavage might spill out of it at any second. Was it magic that kept them inside that tiny outfit? It had to be.

Naruto couldn't help but flush.

"My apologies, Master," she said, breathily. Even her voice was suddenly seductive now, pitched just low enough to sound inviting, as if she were about to share a naughty little secret with him. "Please, right this way. Let me show you around."

"But I'm meeting someone..." Naruto said, clearly flustered as he tore his gaze away from her outfit, only to be met with seductively narrowed, gunmetal-grey eyes. Long violet hair shifted from the girl's shoulders ever-so-perfectly and she frowned in the sweetest possible way, as if she were telling him something with that frown. Something like: _'Are you really going to just leave me here, Master? Do I not please you? Why, Master?"_

Naruto couldn't win. He simply couldn't. Not against that puppy dog expression combined with her sultry body. Naruto half wondered what sort of embarrassed expression was on his own face. "I guess I could..."

"Then it's decided," she said, happily. She was suddenly close to him, close enough that her sweet perfumed wafted at his nose. And she grabbed his arm possessively, not very subtly pressing her chest into it as she led him into the establishment. "Welcome to The Noodle Stand, Master. Here, we serve the best food and drink in town. Along with a full range of other services. You'll love us here, Master."

**- 3 -**

The next several hours of Naruto's life was barely more than a blur. With the help of his 'serving girl' (for lack of a better term), he ate, and drank, and had a most wonderful time. The food was incredible, everything he imagined it would be. And the drink was phenomenal, the kind of hard stuff that left his mind a blithering, happy mess.

The serving girl's name was... oh... what was it again? Something that started with a 'K'? He guessed that, in the end, it didn't really matter. But she seemed more than just a pretty face. In the short time that he knew her, Naruto found her charming, witty, and immensely entertaining.

She led him around the huge establishment after his lavish meal; explained that The Noodle Stand also doubled as a bath-house and Inn. So they went to the bath-house next, where he washed himself off with the flirty 'serving girl's' help because, hey, he was just so drunk that he could barely do it himself.

Then at the end of it all, they went to an Inn and there, Naruto did something that he wasn't entirely proud of. Something he never would have done were it not for his extremely intoxicated state. So let's just pretend it never happened. Let's pretend that most of his Jewels were spent only on food and drink and a night at the Inn. Let's pretend that his 'serving girl' was only a serving girl and nothing more. Yes, let's pretend all that and assume Naruto simply went to the Inn for a blissful afternoon's sleep.

Yes, let's do that, because he couldn't remember any of it anyways.

**- 4 -**

(Coming Soon)

* * *

**A/N: **As always, thank you for reading. And expect this chapter to be complete within a week or so. I have another memory sequence planned. And one more scene with Lucy. Then I'll call it a chapter and _finally_ start with the damn tournament that I've been mentioning since like, chapter three.

Finally, a question for all of you. Do you _want_ to see some NarutoxLucy? I was planning on keeping their relationship strictly platonic. But I _can_ easily spin it into a romance if you guys want.

Let me know. The story will naturally change a bit if you guys decide on the romance. Either way, it won't be the only one.


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